If you have never been to the capitol of the United States, you have got to visit it at least once in your life time. After all, it features some very forward thinking architecture (for when it was designed), and some of the most unique structures in our entire country. Simply put, it was designed to have a decided “wow effect” on the foreign dignitaries and leaders who visit it. And in addition to that, it is chock full of different monuments, such as the Lincoln Memorial and the (less than creatively titled) Washington Monument. While it is part time capsule, you have to remember that this is the center of where our government still actively (well, as actively as they ever really work) operates right now.
The men who designed Washington DC had a vision, and wanted to create a place that was completely unlike any other, both in the United States and anywhere else in the world. And while there are definitely plenty of elements to the local architecture that take their cues from the Greeks and the Romans, there is definitely a unique design aesthetic at work there. Considering that back in those days, the streets were positively massive, DC is still a functionally accessible city by car, despite the fact that there is plenty of public transportation available.
You have also got to consider that, for all of the great architecture that lines the entire city, there is also a supremely functional aspect to it all. This is not a city that is going anywhere any time soon. This is where the longest continually running government on planet Earth operates out of. And most likely, a hundred years from now it is still going to be doing so in much the same (irritating, petty, incredibly slow) fashion as it does today. Washington DC really is an incredible place, both in how it looks and in how it operates, then and now.