pennsylvania avenue 1600 nw, the most famous address in the united states, well, you can't get here by taxi, they'll drop you off at the 17th street checkpoint, metal fences. behind them is a discreet mansion in the paladin style, the residence of all american presidents, starting with john adams. over the years of its existence, the white house has become synonymous with power, a symbol of the institution of the presidency for american citizens and people around the world. this command center of museum interiors is familiar to anyone

who has ever held a twenty-dollar bill in their hands banknote. its corridor and hallway are accessible to the memory of thousands of guests and tourists, hundreds of heads of foreign states, dozens of presidential administrations. it has changed over time with the development of technology, suffered fires, reconstruction attacks. each president contributed to the development of this unique complex, the very idea of ​​its creation belongs to the first us president george. who never got to live in the white house. at the end of the 18th century, eight were awarded the status of temporary capital of the united states cities. napolis

and trenton, but both congress and george washington believed that the capital of the united states should not be dependent on any of the states. a decision was made to build a new city for which washington chose a diamond-shaped site with a side length of 10 miles along the potomok river on the border of the states of maryland and virginia. the city would be named after washington himself, and the district, which would be directly subordinate to congress, would be named after columbia. the competition to develop the general plan for the capital would be won by architect pierre charlanfant. thus, first on paper, and then in life, the most un-american of american cities will gradually begin to take shape. the buildings are slender, the avenues are wide and, as if on parisian patterns, radiating out from rectangular blocks. along with the city plan, banfan will propose a project for the president's house in the style of the palaces of the french kings, but george washington

will not like such a scope, and he will have to announce a new competition for the construction of the residence. among the applicants will be us secretary of state thomas jefferson, he will send his project anonymously signing az, but the winner would be the young architect james hoban. in preparing the project, he took into account the unsuccessful experience of l'enfant and designed a building in a restrained paladian style. received an excellent education in ireland and had the necessary abilities and qualifications. it was a competition, so, as expected in a real competition, its results angered those who did not pass it. however, they all strove to ensure that the house for the president was not a palace, but a georgian estate, suitable for the young democracy. they tried to distance themselves from the image of the king, because that is what they were fighting against.

as an irish-american, hoban drew inspiration for the presidential home from european mansions. that is why today the north facade of the white house is so reminiscent of leinsterhouse in dublin, hoban's hometown. and the addition of the southern portico, the colonnade of the château d'argentine in france. of washington closely supervises the project insists on increasing the size of the building from nine bays to eleven. construction begins in 1792. slaves and european migrants work on the construction of the residence. they work in turns on two construction sites, synchronously with the president's house, the capitol is built. the construction is completed within eight years, but george washington's term of office expires in 1797, and the first head of the american state for whom the white house will become a permanent address will be the second president of the united states, john adams.

on november 1, 1800 , together with his wife jenade , he moves the still unfinished building into the building, interior work is being completed, plastering of the walls is underway. linen has to be dried in the formal dining room, the building is so cold and damp that it can only be warmed by lighting a fireplace in each room, the president's wife abigail complains to her friend in a letter, but the gloom and disorganization will not prevent john adams from realizing the important purpose of the newly built residence in the first days. i pray the heavens to send the best blessing to this house to all those who will inhabit it in the future, even if only the most honest and wise rule under this roof. this message. will be engraved in marble in the state dining room under president franklin delaney roosevelt in 1945. the first reviews of the residence will also be left by the third president, thomas jefferson. already in the status of the head of the united states, he will move into the mansion 4 months after the completion of construction, when

john adams' term of office expires. at first , jefferson also complains, but not about the dampness or gloom. in his opinion, the presidential house is too big, so big that it can accommodate two emperors pope. but this did not stop him from adding an eastern and western terrace to the main building to hide unsightly utility buildings and storage facilities from view. since then, almost every president has made both structural and decorative changes to the interior and exterior of the presidential palace. there is no consensus on the history of the origin of the name white house, according to one version, when british troops entered washington in 1814 , along with the capitol, they burned the white house, and after the fire it was painted in white to hide traces of smoke,

on the other hand, the building was originally white, the gray porous limestone from which the walls were laid out was treated with plaster to make it resistant to temperature changes, one way or another in ... centuries, the name white house had already firmly entered into the everyday life of the townspeople, it was used in letters and newspaper articles. the new building really stood out with its whiteness against the background of other buildings. in official correspondence, it was still called the presidential palace, the residence and home of the president, and only in 1901 theodore roosevelt will secure the complex its modern name, putting the signature "white house" on one of the title forms.

the devastating fire of 1814 forced congress to seriously consider the issue of moving the capital to a city with a more developed infrastructure, but the government decided to try to restore the president's house and attracted its creator, architect james hovan, to the reconstruction. he will complete the restoration work in 1817, in 1824 the south portico will be built for the main building, the one that so strongly resembles the colonnade of the french chateau de rastegniac. the addition of the northern portico, rectangular in shape, with supporting columns, was built in 1829

under president johnny coonsey adams. the building received running water in 1833, gas lighting in 1848, and the first heating system was installed in 1853. electricity would appear in the white house in 1891, but the current president benjamin harrison was afraid to even touch the switches, fearing an electric shock. yes, they asked to turn the lights on and off staff, but within 10 years the building was electrified as a whole, like the whole country. it happened very quickly, it was great. there was a telephone number one in the white house. can you imagine how long telephone numbers are these days? well, there was a telephone number one in the white house during the rutherford hayes administration, but there was nowhere to call from it, because practically no one had telephones. at some point, they stopped the switchboard there, but in the evenings, when everyone went home, president hayes answered the calls himself. in 1902, theodore roosevelt

added a west wing to the main building. in 1909 , the oval office appeared on mitafte street, but was partially destroyed 20 years later in a fire on christmas night. it was rebuilt again under franklin roosevelt, giving the office its current appearance. we have a long way to go in the space race and we started late, but this is the convo. the house today is a complex of buildings and structures located on an area of ​​5,100

km and a territory of 7.2 hectares. in the photographs and video footage may make it seem like the complex itself is small, but that's a deceptive feeling. 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces, eight staircases, three elevators. in the center is the main historic building designed by james. it is connected to the west and east wings by colonnades. the main building has six floors, including two underground floors and one attic. the presidential family's living quarters are on the third floor, where the public and guests are not allowed. here are the central hall, yellow oval hall, the bedroom of the president and his family, guest rooms. on the second and first floors there are historical halls, dining rooms for official ceremonies, banquets and ceremonial receptions.

when we hear on the news the white house reported or the white house commented, we are usually shown this main building behind me, but all the important decisions are made in an inconspicuous three-story extension hidden from view behind the trees and bushes in the western wing of the white house. such the inconspicuousness is dictated by the functionality that theodore roosevelt intended for it, and if in its external inconspicuousness the west wing is undoubtedly inferior to the recognition of the main building, it can certainly compete with it. in associations the phrase - the west wing in the usa has long been

synonymous with unprecedented political influence. this is a very ceremonial room, some presidents hardly use it, they go there only to sign a law or meet with someone, in size it very small, it has a big desk, two sofas and a couple of chairs, there are several doors, they usually work in the private office next door, and there is also an office up the stairs, so the oval office is very dependent on the president. some people love it and spend all their time there, and for others it is more of a protocol room.

if there is a marine on duty at the entrance to the west wing, then the president is in the oval office. in the west wing of the white house is located. the famous press room, this background behind me is the very component with which the white house is instantly associated, at this lectern us presidents addressed the nation and answered questions from journalists. it is striking how small this room seems in real life, and not in photographs, and this is not surprising, because in the thirties a fifteen-meter swimming pool for one person franklin l. roosevelt was built here.

in 1969 , richard nixon ordered its conversion into a hall for press conferences. today it bears the name of james brady, press secretary of ronald reagan. he was wounded and left disabled in the 1981 assassination attempt on reagan . the most closed government building and the most open private residence, this status is emphasized.

thomas jefferson opened the white house to the public in 1801. you could walk along the building and ride in a horse-drawn carriage. after andrew jackson's inauguration on the capitol in 1829, thousands of his supporters went to the white house to celebrate and threw an hours-long and out-of-control drunken party. to lure the guests outside, waiters they carried containers of alcohol out onto the north lawn, while inside the crowd was smashing furniture and breaking chinese porcelain. president jackson had to be evacuated to alexandria. it was chaos. people cut off pieces of the curtains as souvenirs, and these curtains cost $7,000 to $10,000 today. of course, you want to avoid that.

in abraham lincoln's time, crowds of people crowded the corridors of the white house, wanting to ask the president a question, greet him, or get a job, they took up a lot of his time, but lincoln himself called such chaotic visits to the public opinion baths, their effect was considered renewing and strengthening. even in the 20th century, citizens lined up on the north lawn to wish the president a merry christmas. it is almost impossible to imagine something like this today. over the years, the white house became more and more closed and impregnable, finally turning into a fortress. to this day, its location , according to the plan of the city designer charles pierre l'enfant, although initially suitable for the capital of the young countries, with the development of technology and the emergence of denser automobile traffic, it only exposed its vulnerability, only 90 m to 17th street pennsylvania avenue by land and just under 2 km

to the glide path for planes landing at reagan airport by air. the territory of the white house was overgrown with fences, checkpoints, cameras, motion and heat sensors. bulletproof glass and reinforced walls were installed in the building itself, and its roof was constantly guarded sent a sniper team to the secret service. the airspace above the white house was declared a no-fly zone, and after the september 11 terrorist attacks , anti-aircraft missile systems were installed within the radius of the residence. visitors and tourists go through metal detectors at the entrance. locations, than to get into the white house on a remote basis, products are tested first , even the president's relatives realized that it is not worth bringing food with you, the secret service will throw it out,

for its more than two-hundred-year history in the white house with state official and working visits were received thousands of heads of foreign states and guests and if usually the weight of state parts fell on the south lawn, the state dining room. in the world of nuclear, environmental and other threats, global unity is a chance for the survival of civilization, but the eastern hall and other historical

premises, then the entire logistical burden on the shoulders of about 100 people, hidden from the attention of the press and television cameras, the permanent staff of the white house, cooks, waiters, florists, cleaners, butlers and lockers, electricians and loaders, to remain unnoticed, part of their duties. the staff tries not to draw attention to their work, they give the president the opportunity to concentrate on the main thing, running the state. you can't stop every second and say good morning, mrs. clinton, everyone has their own habits and preferences, they need to be taken into account, presidents come and go, and the time between presidents is the most favorite moment for the staff, it's about four to...

the south lawn is also a helipad, a tradition that goes back almost half a century, with presidents leaving the white house and returning there by helicopter. this idea belongs to the thirty-fourth us president, duwait isenhower. in 1957, he managed to convince the us secret service that traveling by air was faster, more efficient and safer than in a limousine. since then , all us presidents have used helicopters. it turned out to be convenient and practical. the area can be reached fairly quickly from the main building or from west wing. we see us president joe biden leaving the oval office. for decades, presidents have flown in a sikorsky helicopter. it can hold up to 14 passengers and weighs almost 9 tons. it is clear that regular landings would eventually ruin the lawn on the south lawn, so before each takeoff or landing,

three special metal discs are deployed on the grass under each chassis. landing a helicopter on such a small site is a special skill, and it's not easy to take off either, because the historic white house is only a couple of dozen meters away. it rises into the sky, the sigorsky helicopter, i must say, the wave from the wind is very strong from the blade, this spectacle is worth it for that, of course. due to the magic of sound photography,

we're able to take you a first sight-seeing tour by airplane over historic washington dc, below us, surrounded by beautiful grounds and shade trees, stands the white house, the home of the president of the united states since george washington. the main building of the white house is actually 69 years old, not 229, at least that's what you'd think if you take into account the complete reconstruction of the complex in the second half of the 20th century. two major fires, several haphazard reconstructions, the installation of sewerage, electricity, heating and air conditioning systems, led to the fact that by the second half of the 20th century the white house, which was not originally designed for such a transformation , was in a state of disrepair due to natural wear and tear. when harry truman and his family came here in 1945, then the third presidential floor, according to the recollections of his daughter margaret, looked like a third-rate seedy hotel, but this was only the external aesthetic

side of the problem, which was more... of a deeper structural nature. the first days after moving in, the trumans begin to notice strange things. the chandeliers swing spontaneously. one of them hangs in the east hall - it is 550 kg (6,000 crystals of bohemian glass), it has a habit of swinging over the heads of guests during official receptions. at such moments, the trumans only exchange nervous glances with each other, but already know that the culprit is the rotten wooden floor of the third floor, on which this chandelier is attached. sounds also overcome. who stay in the house overnight, the servants warn before going to bed, at night you can hear a knock on the door, but there will be no one in the hallway, do not be afraid. franklin roosevelt said: old houses should creak, stairs, floors should creak. he himself

lived in an old house in new york state. 1948, the leg of the piano, on which president truman's daughter margaret played, fell through rotten floorboards. engineers assumed that the western part of the third floor was sinking and reinforced the ceilings with metal beams, but further study of the condition of the structure and calculations showed that it was not only the western part that was sinking, the entire building was beginning to settle and could collapse at any moment. some then said that the white house

survived only by force of habit. it was decided to move the first family to blair house (the guest house opposite), and to carry out a full-scale reconstruction of the white house, which stretched for 3.5 years. for this purpose, a special commission for the renovation of the state residence was created, which proposed three options: the first was to dismantle and rebuild the interior, preserving the historic walls, the second was to demolish the building entirely and build a completely new residence. the third was to dismantle the outer walls, rebuild the building entirely together with the interior, and assemble the historic walls along the perimeter. the commission settled on the first option, to leave the original walls intact, and completely rebuild the inside of the building, to build a new concrete foundation to construct two additional underground levels. the task was enormously difficult. it was necessary to preserve the appearance of the building while completely modernizing it inside. both were carefully removed and folded, that is, many details were preserved so that they could be restored later,

and not just torn apart. but the main transformation was the lining of the building with a steel frame. in december 1949, workers began dismantling the white house from the inside. they dismantled floor by floor, wall after wall, leaving only the outer contour by the mid-fifties, supported by temporary metal supports. the building began to look like a box with a huge empty space. 28 thousand m. trucks and excavators could move freely inside. in the second stage of reconstruction, workers built a skeleton of metal construction with reinforced concrete floors between the floors. over the next year and a half , construction crews erected new walls in the building, installed communications and were engaged in interior decoration of the premises. the grand opening of the residence took place in march 1952 , president truman and his family returned to a new white house of large dimensions. this reconstruction is considered one

of the most radical events in the history of the white house and one of the most serious engineering challenges of its time, and if the white house owes its salvation to truman's reconstruction, then the restoration of the appearance of the original interiors to jacqueline kennedy. when the kennedys moved into the white house, the furniture, according to the first lady, looked like it had been bought at a discount store , and indeed, the truman renovation was so expensive that the first floor had to be furnished with furniture from a regular department store. the tasteless decoration of the rooms, the abundance of pink heritage, former first lady mamie, zenhow, artificial materials of furniture and decoration caused jack kennedy disappointment, all these people visiting the white house and not seeing anything in it that dates back to before 1948 , she said in an interview with the magazine live. she called the white house a dime store. you know, she was kind of hinting, but no, it has to look like that.