The Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Dept. of Treasury
14th and C Streets, SW
Washington, D.C.
Hours: Monday – Friday 8:00AM – 4:45PM
Phone: 1-866-874-2330
www.moneyfactory.com

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing had its foundations in 1861 with workers signing, separating, and trimming sheets of Demand Notes in the Treasury building. Today, the Bureau is the largest producer of U. S. government security documents with production facilities in Washington, D.C. and in Ft. Worth, Texas.

Tickets for public tours are available at Raoul Wallenberg Place. Same day tickets are distributed at this location beginning at 8:00AM. There is a limited number per day and tickets usually run out by 9:00AM. The tour times are 9 AM to 10:45 AM and 12:30 PM to 2 PM. Lines usually start to form at 6:30 AM.

If you would like to request a Congressional tour of the Bureau, contact Congressman Dent’s office to make appropriate reservations. Please allow at least two months notice prior to your desired tour date.

The Capitol Building

The United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., is among the most architecturally impressive and symbolically important buildings in the world. It has housed the meeting chambers of the  Senate and the House of Representatives for almost two centuries. Begun in 1793, the Capitol has been built, burnt, rebuilt, extended, and restored; today, it stands as a monument not only to its builders but also to the American people and their government.

Tours are available through Congressman Dent’s office Monday through Friday beginning at 9:00AM. Please allow approximately 1.5 hours of touring time. If you are interested in visiting the Capitol, please contact the Congressman’s office at least two weeks prior to your requested date. Due to the high number of requests, we will accommodate your request for tours as best as we are able.

Tours are also available through Capitol Guide Services. The Capitol Guide Service conducts free guided tours of the Capitol Monday through Saturday. The first public tour begins each day at 9:00AM and the last at 3:30PM. Tickets for tours are distributed daily beginning at 9:00AM on a first come, first serve basis. The ticket kiosk is located at the southwest corner of the Capitol grounds next to the Botanic Gardens. Reservations for these tickets can not be made in advanced, so plan for an early arrival to receive your tickets the morning of your desired tour day.

For updated tour information:
(202)225-6827

http://www.house.gov/house/tour_services.shtml

The Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts

200 F Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20566
Phone: 202-416-8340
www.kennedy-center.org

Tours: Monday – Friday 10 AM to 5 PM
Saturday-Sunday 10 AM to 1 PM

The Kennedy Center, located on the banks of the Potomac River near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, opened to the public in September 1971. But its roots date back to 1958, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed bipartisan legislation creating a National Cultural Center. In honor of Eisenhower's vision for such a facility, one of the Kennedy Center's theaters was named for him. If interested in a tour of the facility, please contact the Congressman’s office.

Free performances on the Millennium Stage are available Monday through Friday at 6:00PM. Tickets are not required for entry.


The Library of Congress

101 Independence Avenue, SE
Washington, D.C. 20540
Hours: Monday – Saturday 10:00AM – 5:00PM
Phone: 202-707-8000
http://www.loc.gov/visit/

Tours: Public (Monday – Friday) 10:30, 11:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30; Saturday 10:30, 11:30, 1:30, 2:30; Please contact the Congressman’s office if you are interested in a Congressional tour.

The Library was founded in 1800, making it the oldest federal cultural institution in the nation. On August 24, 1814, the Library's core collection of 3,000 volumes was destroyed when the British burned the Capitol, where the Library was housed. The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with more than 130 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 29 million books and other printed materials, 2.7 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.8 million maps, 5 million music items and 58 million manuscripts. Docent-led scheduled public tours are offered Mondays through Saturdays in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress.

The National Archives

700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20408
Hours: 10:00AM – 9:00PM daily
Phone: 1-866-325-7208
www.archives.gov

This site contains the original documents that helped in the formation of our Nation: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Treaty of Paris. This facility can be explored on a self guided tour. You can also contact Congressman Dent’s office to set up a Congressional tour of the Archives. Reservations should be made at least 2 months ahead of the requested date.

Guided tours are available at the National Archives Monday-Friday. Reservations must be made six weeks in advance and the space is limited to twenty people. The spring and summer tours run from 10 AM to 7 PM while the fall and winter hours run from 10 AM to 5:30 PM.

The Smithsonian Museums

Hours: Most are open 7 days a week except Christmas 10:00AM – 5:30PM.
Check individual museums for specific times.
Phone: (202)633-1000
(202) 633-5285 (TTY)
www.si.edu

African Art Museum
Air and Space Museum
American Art Museum
American History Museum
American Indian Museum
Anacostia Museum
Arts & Industries Building
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Freer & Sackler Galleries
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
National Zoo
Natural History Museum
Portrait Gallery – Closed until July 2005
Postal Museum
Smithsonian Institution Building, the Castle

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
Washington, D.C. 20024
Hours: 10:00AM-5:30PM daily
Extended Hours (April through Mid-June) Tuesdays and Thursdays: 10AM to 7:50 PM
Phone: (202)488-0400
www.ushmm.org

The Museum's permanent exhibition, The Holocaust, spans three floors of the Museum building. It presents a narrative history using more than 900 artifacts, 70 video monitors, and four theaters that include historic film footage and eyewitness testimonies. The exhibition is divided into three parts: "Nazi Assault," "Final Solution," and "Last Chapter." The narrative begins with images of death and destruction as witnessed by American soldiers during the liberation of Nazi concentration camps in 1945. Most first-time visitors spend an average of two to three hours in this self-guided exhibition. The Museum is recommended for visitors 11 years of age and older.

Timed passes are necessary for entrance to The Holocaust exhibition. Passes can be obtained at the Museum the same day of your visit or in advance by calling tickets.com at (800)400-9373. If are going to wait till the day of your visit to gain entry passes, visit the museum in the early morning to be sure to secure tickets for the day.

The U.S. Supreme Court

One First Street, NE
Washington, D.C. 20543
Hours: Monday – Friday 9:00AM – 4:30PM
Phone: (202)479-3211
www.supremecourtus.gov

Public lectures are available in the Courtroom every hour on the half-hour from 9:30AM-3:30PM on days that the Court is not sitting. Seating for the lectures is available on a first come, first serve basis. There is also a 24 minute Visitor’s Film on the history of the Court and the Justices that is shown approximately every half hour beginning at 9:30AM. The last showing is at 3:30 PM.

All oral arguments are open to the public, but seating is limited and on a first-come, first-seated basis. Before a session begins, two lines form on the plaza in front of the building. One is for those who wish to attend an entire argument, and the other, a three-minute line, is for those who wish to observe the Court in session only briefly. Seating for the first line begins at 9:30AM and 12:30PM. Seating for the three-minute line begins at 10:00AM and 1:00PM. It is recommended you do not take infants or small children into the courtroom.

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Phone: (202)456-7041
www.whitehouse.gov

This self-guided tour of the White House is available Tuesday through Saturday 7:30AM until 12:30PM (excluding Federal Holidays).

*****If you would like tickets to tour the White House, you must contact Congressman Dent’s office at least 6 months before your desired tour date. Tours are only available for groups of 10 or more. If you have a group of less than 10 people, you will be placed on a waiting list in the event tickets do become available through another group.

In the case that you do receive tickets for a tour, security information (name, date of birth, and social security number) must be submitted to the White House for each individual on the tour for a background check. Please be aware that tours may be subject to last minute cancellations.

If you are interested in beginning this process for requesting a tour, please contact Congressman Dent’s office.


Washington National Cathedral

Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues, NW
Washington, D.C. 20016
Phone: (202)537-6200
www.cathedral.org/cathedral

Hours: Sunday 8:00AM – 6:30PM; Monday – Friday 10:00AM – 5:30PM; Saturday 10:00AM – 4:30PM
Donation: $3 – adult; $2 – seniors; $1 - children

The idea for a national cathedral is as old as Washington itself. In 1791, when Congress selected the site to be the capital of the United States, President George Washington commissioned Major Pierre l’Enfant to design an overall plan for the future seat of government.

Included in l’Enfant’s plan was a church, “intended for national purposes, such as public prayer, thanksgiving, funeral orations, etc., and assigned to the special use of no particular Sect or denomination, but equally open to all.” Since the first services were held in Bethlehem Chapel, Washington National Cathedral has opened its doors to people of all faiths as they have gathered to worship and pray, to mourn the passing of world leaders, and to confront the pressing moral and social issues of the day.