National Archives Building, District of Columbia

This old neoclassical building holds the original copies of the formative documents of the nation, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, which are on public display in the rotunda of the building, encased in helium chambers behind bullet-proof glass. The building was constructed over several years, and finally completed in 1937, just north of the Mall. It is the home of the National Archives, the federal entity charged to collect, house, and preserve all the documents considered important to the nation. By 1960 however, the building’s storage capacity of 900,000 cubic feet was met, and material began to be stored in less secure rented off-site spaces, as it had in the past. In 1993, the National Archives opened its sprawling suburban campus in College Park, Maryland, known as “Archives II”, which now houses the bulk of the material. Archives I, the original building here, houses many of the 19^th century and earlier documents, and has the office of the nations official archivist.