The National Archives Building

This is what we saw as we waited in line to go into the National Archives Building. Believe it or not, this was the longest line we had to wait in to see anything in D.C. The National Archive Building houses The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and The Magna Carta was also on display. As we were waiting in line to enter (about 1 hour) we heard all this yelling and loud, low chanting. It was kind of a scary sound. We wondered what was going on. As the line wrapped around the other side of the building we could see these police officers across the street- with machine guns and all! As I took their picture and thanked them for their service and protecting us and America, one office asked, "Is this picture going to end up on the Internet?" I told him, "Probably on my blog." He was ok with that and they were all quite nice. Then we saw the protesters. They were protesting the war. We saw some guy climb up on a fence that he wasn't supposed to and the police men asked him to get down and he did. Who knows why they were protesting at that venue...They also had a whole bunch of American flags that they hung upside down, signaling a 'time of distress.' This is a picture of part of their group. It doesn't look as big in this picture, but it's the best I could get.


Once we got inside the building it was awesome! I got to see where my ancestor, Robert Morris, signed the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He is also up on the wall of the building in this mural:
Rob Morris is on the far left, in the reddish/purplish robe. The same color robe he was wearing in the other painting. Another interesting thing: In both paintings, Robert Morris' face is painted fully. I don't mean full, like chubby. But it's the front view of his face. Not the side-view as most of the other men are painted. I thought that was interesting. I was so proud to tell everyone there that 'that guy in the reddish robe' was my ancestor and my own brother, Robert Morris Bell, is named after him! Robert Morris and one other person, Roger Sherman, were the only two people to sign the three significant founding documents of the United States; the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution.
I don't have any good pictures of the Declaration or the Constitution. The lights are very low- so as to preserve the documents and they don't let you use a flash for the same reason. You know what they look like. But I must say that seeing them in real life was awesome!