The North Wing was the first wing to be completed and Congress assembled there in 1800. The very next year Thomas Jefferson was the first President to be inaugurated at the Capitol which has now become a tradition for every President since then.

The rest of the building was completed by Benjamin Latrobe who followed Thorton’s concept for the exteriors. In 1807 the South Wing which accommodates the chamber of the House of Representatives was completed. Unfortunately, in 1812, during the war, the capitol was partially burned and looted by British troops even though the rain protected it from complete annihilation. When French historian Alexis De Tocqueville visited the United States Capitol in 1832, he was quite impressed by its magnificent structure.

To have more space to accommodate the increasing number of legislators from new states, in 1850 Congress approved another competition for the design to expand both wings. The winner of the competition was architect Thomas Ustick Walter, who completed the expansion of the South Wing in 1857 and the North Wing in 1859. During Walter’s tenure, the major change to the Capitol was the removal of the old dome with a new high iron cast dome. The work on the dome continued at the insistence of President Abraham Lincoln despite the ongoing war.

A new 19.5-foot statue was installed on the top of the dome on December 2nd, 1863. In 1864, Congress decided to institute a National Statuary Hall which would depict two prominent figures from each state. Apart from a few modernizations, which include the addition of central heating, electricity, and elevators, no major changes were made to the structure until 1959-60. In 1960 the east front was expanded 32.5 feet and in December 2008 the 580,000 square foot Capitol Visitor Center was opened.