
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 15, 1990                   TAG: 9006150117
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

U.S. CAPITOL'S OLD COLUMNS RISE FROM MUD

This city of monuments, statues and memorials has a new attraction to evoke the glories of the past.

This newest of Washington's monuments, 22 of the original 24 columns from the U.S. Capitol, literally had to be pulled from the mud of the Anacostia River.

Now, after a mighty effort by a few people dedicated to restoring the columns, they stand on the highest point of a great meadow at the National Arboretum.

The National Capitol Columns, as they are called, were dedicated Wednesday with all the pomp due a newborn shrine.

When they were first installed on the east front of the Capitol in 1826, congressmen left their benches to help pull the carriage load of columns up Capitol Hill.

The columns were the finishing touch to the rebuilding of the Capitol after the British burned the House and Senate wings in 1814.

by CNB