The Library of Congress maintains formal legislative branch of the US federal government, the real is the national library of the country. The largest library in the world has 158 million books, documents, photographs, maps, manuscripts.

In 1800 the US Congress passed an act on the transfer of the seat of government from Philadelphia to Washington. The Act provided for the establishment of the library in the new capital, "necessary for Congress." At first, the institution is located in the Capitol building, but in 1814 the city was captured by the British landing, burned the Capitol, a small library of the British part of the looted and partly burned.

The former had already retired President Thomas Jefferson, a passionate bibliophile, has offered to replace the lost collection of its own, which was collected over half a century. It included six and a half thousand volumes - literary works, works on philosophy and science, and even cookbooks. Jefferson believed that there is a topic that sooner or later would be necessary to study the legislator.

During the XIX century the Library of Congress has become the main national cultural institution. In the second half of the century in the Capitol he felt cramped. The new library building, named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, built in 1897 by architects John and Paul Smitmeyera Pelz.

The building in the Beaux Arts, grew up across the street from the Capitol perfectly: fine facades, huge arched windows, busts of the great portico at the grand fountain "Neptune" at the main entrance. We worked on the interiors of more than fifty major American artists. For they had taken a sample of the interior of the Paris Grand Opera. In the design of the premises are widely used marble, granite, cast iron, bronze. The main hall is decorated with wonderful mosaics and frescoes. Basically, reading room, eight marble columns topped with allegorical figures symbolizing the arts, philosophy, religion, commerce and science. When the building was opened to the public, he was named the biggest, most expensive and most secure library building in the world.

However, in this huge body eventually became closely. In 1939, close up one more - John Adams Building, named after the second president of the United States. In 1976, on Capitol Hill there was a memorial to James Madison (fourth president of memory), in 2007 in the neighboring state of Virginia - Packard Campus, created specifically for the storage of film, television and audio collections.

Library of Congress ahead of the British volume storage. Here are collected documents on 460 languages, more than 69 million manuscripts. A project of the World Digital Library, is open to users worldwide. Chief Librarian, appointed by the president and approved by Congress, brings a special oath.

Tourists visit the library is free, no ticket is needed. But sometimes accumulates in front of all those wishing to explore the temple of books. The main reading room is impossible to photograph - it may interfere with the reader.