I am now maintaining that these two rooms are the most elaborate, exquisite, and grand rooms in the American public.  I don't know of any others that top it.  (Want to disagree, let me know.)  The grandeur was apparent in every little detail from the columns to the paintings to the flooring to the statues.

As I stood there gazing around the Great Hall I stopped and thought about the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks and how they brought about large losses of life but how they destroyed relatively unattractive buildings.  Should the terrorists want to destroy something that would really damage American society, this building would be a tragedy.