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The United States Capitol dome is the dome situated above the United States Capitol which reaches upwards to in height and in diameter. The dome was designed by Thomas U. Walter, the fourth Architect of the Capitol, and constructed between 1855 and 1866 at a cost of $1,047,291 (equivalent to $ in ).〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher= Architect of the Capitol )〕 The dome is not stone, but cast iron carefully painted to appear to be made of the same stone as the main capitol building. It is actually two domes, one inside the other, and the total weight is .〔 ==First dome== The origin of the first dome began with the Capitol design contest sponsored by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, at the behest of President George Washington, in 1792. The winner of the contest, Doctor William Thornton, called for a dome in his original design for the building.〔.〕 Most vividly, Thornton drew upon the Roman Pantheon for inspiration with the Neoclassical dome and associated portico.〔.〕 Thornton's replacement, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the second Architect of the Capitol, altered Thornton's design plan on the exterior by adding an octagonal drum to visually separate the bottom of the dome from the top of the building's pediment. The third Architect of the Capitol, Charles Bulfinch, altered the exterior profile of the plans still further by increasing the dome's height, which he later wrote was at the insistence of the President and Congress. 〔.〕 In 1822, Bulfinch requested funds for the construction of the center of the building, and President Monroe signed off on an appropriation of $120,000. This included the building of a double-dome structure, a stone, brick, and wooden interior dome to rise above the rotunda floor (matching the dimensions of the Pantheon), and a wooden exterior dome covered in copper that would rise to . Set at the crown of the exterior dome was an oculus wide, which provided illumination to the rotunda floor below. Bulfinch completed the project in 1823.〔.〕 For more than two decades, the green copper dome of the Capitol greeted visitors to the nation's capitol, until the 1850s. Due to the growth of the United States and the expansion and addition of new states, the size of the United States Congress had grown accordingly and pushed the limits of the capacity of the Capitol. Under the guidance of the fourth Architect of the Capitol, Thomas U. Walter, extensions were built onto the north and south wings of the building. In the process, the new, longer building made the original Bulfinch dome appear aesthetically displeasing (and it had in any case been the source of much prior criticism). Congress, after lobbying by Walter and Montgomery C. Meigs (then Supervising Engineer), passed legislation to build a bigger dome in 1855. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「United States Capitol dome」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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