The first stop was the State Capitol. I've been in many capitol buildings, as part of my work at one time, but Baton Rouge is one I had never before visited.
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| Louisana Capitol Building |
This is a 34-story building with many offices, the Senate and House chambers and an observation platform on the 30th floor.
There are 48 steps leading up to the entrance, each with the name of one of the original 48 states and the year of entry. The last two states, Alaska and Hawaii, did not result in additional steps, but rather their names were added on either side of the name on the top step (Arizona).
Both the Senate and the House were in session, so we went into the visitor gallery.
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| House chamber |
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| Senate chamber |
The Senate was debating to which organization a call should be in the event of a disturbance on Fish and Wildlife property, the Sheriff or F & W.
The observation platform is a walkway outside the 30th floor, with railings that are about 4 feet high. It looks like an ideal suicide platform! The view was spectacular, though.
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| View looking southwest |
The view to the north was almost exclusively oil refineries, to the northwest, the Mississippi, to the southeast, business buildings.
This is a view southwest, showing the park in front of the capitol building and a bit of traffic on the Mississippi.
Next was a visit to the nearby State Historical Museum, a well done view of significant contributors to the Louisiana culture, such as Huey Long, oil, Louis Armstrong, agriculture and much more. It is fairly new, being built in 1996.
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| State Museum |
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| Exhibit of Louisiana Purchase |
This exhibit is one of the very many skillfully illustrating an important part of the Louisiana history. The Purchase brought into the US about a third of what is now the 48 contiguous states.
We also drove around the LSU campus, a beautiful campus with many trees of various types. Live Oak and Magnolia predominate.
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