“America’s intended destiny has been lost to history” (82). This sounds not unlike the title of the book by Manly P. Hall, The Secret Destiny of America. No more secret than the CIA Office of Security, the history has been overlooked or forgotten by most. Langdon gives us a mini-lecture on the city and its origins. He will call it the “true intentions of our nation’s forefathers” (82). What is undeniable is the striking number of buildings and monuments that capture the grandeur that once was Rome. Washington was built on seven hills as was Rome, along with Jerusalem, Moscow, and Istanbul (the former Constantinople). Langdon reminds us that the area occupied by Washington, D.C., once was even called Rome. Rome’s Tiber River gave the name to the Tiber Creek that flows into the Potomac River near what is today Jefferson Pier, the original planned point for an equestrian statue of George Washington.
The city’s geography perfectly supported the architecture and art that embody the high esteem in which Roman culture was held by the new democracy. Rome had its constitution as did the fledgling United States in 1789, and a Senate with representatives of the people who made laws and balanced the power of the Emperor. American political structures and the legal system were modeled in part on Ancient Roman traditions.
Washington became de facto a new Rome because of the multiple associations embedded in it by the founders. Thomas Jefferson suggested the Latin-sounding name Columbia to signify freedom for all. The Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill gave us the name for the Capitol. The city’s wide avenues and prospects and its sweeping views mimic the Roman Forum. The architecture will be compared by Langdon to ancient pantheons, temples, and the gigantic obelisk. At the city’s geographical center is the Capitol which houses over a hundred statues, and whose walls and ceilings are graced with frescoes and paintings on a scale reserved for cathedrals and the Vatican. The Capitol’s classical columns and the Pantheon-like Rotunda that Langdon compares to the Temple of Vesta all evoke Rome. There was also the Capitol Crypt, intended to hold the remains of George Washington, that mirrors the crypt in St. Peter’s Basilica for Peter. The city of Washington was never intended to compete with Rome for grandeur, but it was intended to emulate it across the Atlantic. In an aside that reminds us of Rome and the main artistic figure of Angels & Demons, inside the Great Hall of the Library of Congress: “Langdon wonders what Bernini would have thought?” (182)
U.S. Capitol, with Washington Monument on left
KEYS TO ANGELS & DEMONS
keysangelsdemons.wetpaint.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS VIDEO
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsX_0WWII0&feature=related