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13 June 2014
Building DC: Union Station’s marble floors
Whenever I go to a hearing on the Senate side of Capitol Hill, I usually arrive via Union Station. It’s a really beautiful building and one of the few grand train stations left in the country, and I’m always impressed by the architecture there. According to the architectural history, it was designed in the Beaux-Arts Style and meant to mimic the Roman Baths of Caraculla and Diocletian. It was completed in 1907, and then restored from 1986-1988 (and it’s actually being worked on right now, too). But wait! There’s geology involved with all that history.
30 January 2008
Marble monuments: Not all they’re cracked up to be
The Washington Post ran an article today about the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. For quite a long time now – since the 1960s, in fact – the marble used to build the Tomb has been cracking. (You can see it fairly well in the photo to the right.) According to the Post, “The stone, now weathered and chipped, has two horizontal cracks, both of which have …