Thanks folks. Michelle, as for the reason for the columns. The short answer is, well.just because. Personally I think the reason is has to do with the fact that around hear if you have a large open grassy area, someone has to put something on it. Such as a shopping mall, town house, or monument.

The truth of the matter goes like this. (Hope I get this right, the web site seems to be down at the moment.) These columns were part of the US Capital Building from around 1826 to 1956. About that time they put a new dome on the Capital, and the design gave the illusion that the dome was to big to be adequately supported. So to fix the illusion, they had to remove these columns, from the east side, to build whatever they built, so the dome wouldnt look as if it were going to fall. So now we jump to the 80s, some big shot landscaper took a trip out to the National Arboretum and seen this 20 acre stretch of grass and thought it needed something on it, and thought that the unused columns would go well at the top of the hill. He died a few months later, and they put the columns up.

So thats the story, as best as I can remember, but this is the URL to the page talking about the Capitol Columns http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/collections/columns.html I suppose they will have it back up eventually.

Quinn