On the way to the capital, we passed this coal-fire electric plant and decided to look it up and read about it. It was interesting reading about how much coal is burned to create electricity, how much electricity is made and, of course, how much carbon dioxide is created.
The capital itself with very prestigious and sits right on the Kanawha River, a tributary of the Ohio.
The statue of a coalminer at the Capitol complex reminded us of the movie
October Sky that we watched at Christmas time. It is about high school students in a small coal mining town here in West Virginia who won a rocket science competition years ago. It's too bad the town is 1 1/2 hours out of our way, otherwise we will probably visit.
The capital of West Virginia waveres back-and-forth between the cities of Wheeling and Charleston several times before they finally decided on Charleston and built this beautiful Capitol.
This building is in a U-shape. Each side with built at a different time, but it is able to house all parts of the West Virginia government.
This Capitol can claim to have a higher roof than the US Capitol (by 5 feet). It is also designed by the same architect, Cass Gilbert, who also designed the Minnesota Capitol.
The chandelier hanging from the dome weighs 4000 pounds!
Next-door is the State Museum.
Everyone enjoyed learning about West Virginia's history.
West Virginia became a state in the middle of the Civil War. Prior to that it was part of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
And it seems that these days no visit to a capital would be complete without a protest. This one was about climate change.
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