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THE CAPITOL DOME 32 hundred skylights in twenty vertical bands, and its spring was 12 feet 6 inches from the top of the forty-foot-high entabla ture. Another French architectural model was used for the roof framing. Latrobe reported to Washington's principal newspa - per: "is enormous roof is in thickness only 16 inches and is a very remarkable specimen of excellent carpenter's work. It is constructed on the plan of Philibert de l'Orme . . . and is pierced with square lights . . . in all 100." 12 He also stated in this report that the South Wing could be solidly vaulted if nec- essary. e built dome was covered with sheet iron on the exte- rior and plastered on the interior. e interior was faux-painted by George Bridport of Philadelphia to simulate coffered pan- els alternating with the bands of skylights. e completed chamber was ready for the House of Representatives by 1808. A monumental allegorical sculpture of a sitting Liberty was designed by Latrobe and carved by Giuseppe Franzoni, and was completed in its plaster state by September 1807. e Liberty, a story unto itself, was an integral part of Latrobe's design sequence. e rest of the chamber was finished off with platforms, carpeting, mahogany desks and chairs, a Speaker's rone, Argand lamps and an Argand chandelier, gilt railings, and deep crimson baize curtains draped between the majestic 26-foot 8-inch tall columns that rested atop the seven-foot hippodrome wall circumscribing the room. T h e D e s t r u c t i o n On August 24, 1814, a combined British force led by Rear Admiral George Cockburn and Major General Robert Ross marched into Washington, supposedly in retaliation for the destruction of York (now Toronto) in 1813 by American forces. Both the Capitol and the White House were burned as well as other public buildings. Cockburn's lieutenant, ordered to burn the Capitol, is reported to have said as he stood at the entrance, "it is a pity to burn anything so beautiful." 13 T h e E n i g m a In Paris in the summer of 2001, having won the Gabriel Prize for drawing, I studied several of omas Jefferson's favorite buildings in an attempt to better understand his aesthetic and his design principles. My research led to the Halle aux blés, Fig. 8. Latrobe, United States Capitol, Washington, D.C., Perspective from the northeast (1806). is watercolor, ink, and wash drawing is inscribed on the back: "TO THOMAS JEFFERSON Pres. U.S., B.H. LATROBE, 1806." L IBR ARY OF CONGRE S S PRIN T S AND PHOTO GR APHS DIVISION