Barb Gonzalez / For The BulletinThe dome of the U.S. Capitol is shrouded in scaffolding as architects continue with a two-year, $60-million restoration of the 19th-century structure. Work is on track to be completed before the inauguration of the next U.S. president in January 2017.

WASHINGTON, D.C. —

A newshound is rightfully at home in our nation’s capital, where more headlines are generated than anywhere else in the United States — and perhaps the world. That may be especially true in this election year.

The Newseum, located a short block north of the National Mall between the U.S. Capitol and the White House, is one place where visitors can be sure to keep up with all the news, regardless of their political biases.

A contraction of “news museum,” the Newseum was established in suburban Rosslyn, Virginia, in 1997. Funded by the nonpartisan Freedom Forum, which is dedicated to free speech and free press, it proved so popular that it closed in 2002 and reopened in Washington in a new, $450 million building in 2008.

Seven levels high around a central atrium, the Newseum includes 15 theaters and an equal number of galleries, with exhibits that include worldwide coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks, stunning Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs and the largest display of sections of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany.

Other exhibits study the historical growth of technologies in internet and broadcast journalism, and the state of race relations a half century after the Civil Rights Act. There are displays as whimsical as a photo essay on the “First Dogs” of American presidents, and as poignant as a memorial to international journalists killed in the line of duty.

Perhaps the most popular gallery exhibit, at the time of my visit last month, was “CNN Politics: Campaign 2016.” Before visitors left its interactive displays, they were asked to choose who they thought would win the November election. Hillary Clinton outpolled Donald Trump by a 2-to-1 margin. Some may think that, had the exhibit been sponsored by a different network, the results would also have been different.

Around the outside of the Newseum, the front pages of newspapers from all 50 U.S. states and more than 30 international cities are updated every day. When I visited, each and every one (the sole exception being an Israeli newspaper) featured the Orlando, Florida, nightclub shooting as its main story.

The White House

The Newseum was a highlight of my recent visit to Washington with photographer Barb Gonzalez. College friend Art Bushnell and his wife, Roseanne, welcomed us into their home in suburban Manassas, Virginia, for a week, and accompanied us on many of our forays into the city and surrounding areas.

Bushnell, who is originally from Eugene and is a former editor of the Oregon Daily Emerald, has spent much of his subsequent career in journalism working for United Press International and Reuters, the British news agency. A resident of metropolitan Washington for three decades, he is now an executive with the cutting-edge Tribune Content Agency.

A month would not have been long enough to take in the attractions of the District of Columbia and adjacent Maryland and Virginia. We chose to limit our sightseeing to the precincts of the 2-mile-long National Mall and a few spots on the Virginia side of the Potomac River.

We insisted, of course, on visiting the White House, as the Obama presidency enters its last six months. Without having made advance tour plans through Oregon’s Congressional delegation, we were left to appreciate the view of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. from Lafayette Square. A strong fence and a Secret Service team made sure no one got too close.

It seemed only natural this year that one braying bully should be standing outside the White House fence, requesting — nay, demanding! — that visitors cast their November vote for Trump. He was armed only with a loud voice and thus drew little attention from most.

The dome of the Capitol, about a mile and a half east, is presently shrouded in scaffolding as architects continue with a two-year, $60 million restoration of the 19th-century structure. Work is on track to be completed before the inauguration of the next U.S. president in January 2017. While the construction put the whammy on the perfect Capitol photograph, it didn’t compromise business as usual in the chambers.

Visitors who want to see the House or Senate in session must obtain passes, in advance, from the office of a legislator. (For Central Oregonians, that could be Rep. Greg Walden.) But passes for guided tours may be booked online; they depart every day but Sunday, between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., from the lower level of the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.

We were satisfied to explore the Exhibition Hall, which includes a 1/20th scale model of the Capitol dome and a full-size plaster cast of the bronze Statue of Freedom, the topmost pinnacle of the actual dome. The National Statuary Hall Collection, featuring two images contributed by each state, is also represented here; Oregon’s statues depict founding fathers John McLoughlin and Jason Lee, although Chief Joseph, we were told, soon will replace Lee.

The Smithsonian

The Capitol stands at the east end of the National Mall, which extends due west to the famous obelisk of the 555-foot tall Washington Monument, and beyond, across the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial. About one-third of a mile wide, between Constitution and Independence avenues, this broad greensward is administered by the National Park Service.

While Washington’s most famous memorials and monuments surround the west side of the mall, its eastern 12 blocks are dominated by the museums of the Smithsonian Institution. Established in 1846 as a national museum, the Smithsonian now comprises 19 museums and nine research centers, with affiliates around the world. Its original red-brick “castle” — dating from 1855 — has become the visitor center, assisting Washington neophytes in deciding which collections to explore in detail.

More than a dozen of the museums are here on the mall itself, including the stunning new National Museum of African American History and Culture, scheduled to open in late September beside the Washington Monument. There are several art museums as well as the Air and Space Museum, the American Indian Museum and others. We chose to focus our attention on just two, the American History Museum and the Natural History Museum.

The Smithsonian museums — none of which charge admission — are anything but stodgy. Long since elevated from the 19th century into the 21st, they are unabashedly interactive, encouraging visitors to be entertained as they learn.

A current exhibit at the four-story History Museum, “Price of Freedom,” surveys the wars this nation has fought, from pre-Revolutionary to the modern struggle against terrorism. Abraham Lincoln’s trademark stovepipe hat is featured in “The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden.” The original “Star Spangled Banner” is displayed in another section.

“American Stories” reminds us of remarkable individuals of every race: Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves share a display case with Apolo Anton Ohno’s Olympic gold medal-winning speed skates. There’s even a re-creation of Julia Child’s TV kitchen.

We visited the National History Museum primarily to see the gems-and-minerals exhibit, which included the priceless and legendary Hope Diamond, and to behold the African images of National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting. But we were even more captivated by the Nature’s Best Photography display, selected from more than a half-million photos submitted for Windland Smith Rice International Awards over the past 20 years.

Almost opposite the Natural History Museum on Constitution Avenue is the National Archives, where the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights draw a constant line of visitors to an upper-level rotunda. An even older document, an original copy of the 1297 Magna Carta, welcomes the curious to the “Records of Rights” exhibit in the David M. Rubenstein Gallery, which includes records of equal rights legislation on behalf of African-Americans, women and foreign immigrants.

The memorials

The Washington Monument stands at the heart of the National Mall, directly south of the White House and north of the Jefferson Memorial. Honoring our first president, George Washington, it was started in 1848 but wasn’t completed until 1888. Closed for repairs after suffering damage in a 2011 earthquake, it reopened to the public in 2014, again welcoming visitors inspired to climb the 897 steps to its upper observation area.

About 6 million people a year visit the Lincoln Memorial, dedicated in 1922. Built in the form of a Greek Doric temple, its central statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln, by Daniel Chester French, is flanked by inscriptions of the 16th president’s famous Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address.

Less than a mile away, on the south side of the Tidal Basin, the neoclassical-style Jefferson Memorial was completed in 1943 to honor the third president and principal architect of the Declaration of Independence. Rudulph Evans’ 19-foot bronze statue of a standing Jefferson was added in 1947.

Between these two memorials are another pair of monuments, less well known and more recent in construction, but important in their own rights. The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, dedicated in 1997, has four outdoor rooms that spread across a 7.5-acre plot with waterfalls and rock features beside the Tidal Basin; FDR’s role in carrying this country through the Great Depression and Second World War are the major themes.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, which opened in 2011, is on a direct sightline between the Jefferson Memorial and Lincoln Memorial — where the African-American leader delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech facing the Reflecting Pool in 1963. Its centerpiece is a 30-foot relief of King, by sculptor Lei Yixin, that is based on a line from that speech: “Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”

The most famous of numerous war memorials on the west side of the National Mall is the 1982 Vietnam Veterans Memorial, including its commemorative wall by architect Maya Lin. Like nearly everyone of a certain age, I’m sure, I paused to pay homage to an old friend who lost his life fighting in Southeast Asia. Nearby is another statue, “The Three Soldiers” (by Frederick Hart), depicting servicemen of three different races honoring their fallen comrades.

The counterpoint to this drama is a wonderfully whimsical statue of Albert Einstein on the north side of Constitution Avenue, at the southwest corner of the National Academy of Sciences grounds. Unveiled in 1979, the sculpture by Robert Berks shows the German-born physicist holding a piece of paper that carries three equations — those for the theory of general relativity, the photoelectric effect and the equivalence of energy and matter (E=mc2).

Visiting Virginia

Looking westerly from the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery can be clearly seen across the Potomac River. From this distance (about a mile), its most notable feature is a historic estate now known as the Arlington House — though it was once the residence of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his wife, the great-granddaughter of first lady Martha Washington.

More than 400,000 active-duty service members, veterans and their families are laid to rest on this 200-acre hillside plot. A welcome center directs visitors to graves and memorials of special interest, including that of President John F. Kennedy and his family, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Every minute of every day, soldiers maintain a vigil at the Tomb, changing watch every half hour in summer, hourly from October through March.

There are more bittersweet memories at the Manassas National Battlefield Park, 25 miles southwest of the cemetery. This was the nearest Civil War battlefield to Washington, and its rolling hills, beside a creek known as Bull Run, experienced bloody battles in July 1861 and again in August 1862.

U.S. Highway 29 now cuts a swath through the parkland where more than 4,000 Union and Confederate patriots died and Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson became an icon of Southern resolve. Films, dioramas and exhibits at the Henry Hill and Brawner Farm visitor centers describe each side’s strategies.

Visitors to the District of Columbia who want to experience a little of the suburban Virginia spirit would be well-advised to spend an evening in Old Town Alexandria, a lovely historic district by the Potomac, a short distance south of Ronald Reagan National Airport. Cobblestone streets and red-brick sidewalks flank both sides of King Street, a mile-long, walkable thoroughfare that is abuzz with outdoor cafes and shops, including the fascinating Torpedo Factory Art Center.

A city different

Washington itself, of course, isn’t like most cities. You’ll find no skyscrapers here, although there are plenty in its Virginia and Maryland suburbs. Strict zoning laws prohibit any building (save the Washington Monument) from being taller than 15 stories, so as not to diminish the 287-foot Capitol dome.

Most government office buildings are around 12 floors, but they make up for lack of height with a massive, tomblike construction. Especially in the blocks immediately south and north of the National Mall, street-side shops and cafes are noticeably absent. Outlying neighborhoods like Georgetown, Foggy Bottom and Dupont Circle — the latter noted for its concentration of foreign embassies — are better places to find food and evening entertainment.

Fortunately for the visitor, Washington is well-served by light rail and a good bus system. Six Metro lines extend well into suburban Maryland and Virginia, and the inexpensive Circulator bus runs complementary routes, including one that circles through the National Mall, from Union Station to the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, every 10 minutes from morning to evening.

One of my lasting memories of Washington will be traipsing through the lobby of the Willard Hotel, where the term “lobbyist” was allegedly coined in the 1870s by special-interest advocates anxious to speak to legislators, then retiring to the POV Terrace atop the nearby W Hotel Washington, where we could enjoy a drink and a light meal with an aerial view of the White House. (“No telephoto lenses are allowed,” we were warned by a host.)

More than that, however, I’ll remember the First Amendment Gallery at the Newseum, which exalts the importance of the opening provision of the Bill of Rights: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

As our nation celebrates its 240th birthday Monday, I am taken by the profound wisdom of those words scribed by our forefathers more than two centuries ago. And I am reminded of how difficult it has been for our country to vigilantly defend those rights.

May we always continue to do so.

— Reporter: janderson@bendbulletin.com