before exiting his vehicle and attempting to attack others with a knife. An officer hit by the attacker's car died shortly thereafter. The attacker was shot by Capitol Police and later died of his injuries. Capitol Visitor Center The United States Capitol Visitor Center (CVC), located below the East Front of the Capitol and its plaza, between the Capitol building and 1st Street East, opened on December 2, 2008. The CVC provides a single security checkpoint for all visitors, including those with disabilities, and an expansion space for the US Congress. The complex contains of space below ground on three floors, and offers visitors a food court, restrooms, and educational exhibits, including an 11-foot scale model of the Capitol dome. It also features skylights affording views of the actual dome. Long in the planning stages, construction began in the fall of 2001, following the killing of two Capitol police officers in 1998. The estimated final cost of constructing the CVC was $621 million. Gallery See also Apotheosis of Democracy by Paul Wayland Bartlett, a pediment on the east front of the House of Representatives Portico Congressional Prayer Room Hideaways, secret offices used by members of the Senate History of modern period domes List of capitols in the United States List of legislative buildings President's Room, an ornate office sometimes used by the President United States fifty-dollar bill, which pictures the Capitol on the back Vice President's Room Washington's Tomb Architecture of Washington, D.C. Citations References Fryd, Vivien Green (1987). Two Sculptures for the Capitol: Horatio Greenough's "Rescue" and Luigi Persico's "Discovery of America." In American Art Journal (Vol. 19, pp. 16–39). Further reading Aikman, Lonnelle. We, the People: the Story of the United States Capitol, Its Past and Its Promise. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Capitol Historical Society, in cooperation with the National Geographic Society, 1964. Ovason, David, The Secret Architecture of our Nation's Capital: the Masons and the building of Washington, D.C., New York City, New York: Harper Collins, 2000. External links Capitol Visitors Center United States Capitol Historical Society Architect of the Capitol Capitol History Project Temple of Liberty: Building the Capitol for a New Nation, Library of Congress U.S. Capitol Police "Book Discussion on Freedom's Cap, C-SPAN, March 20, 2012 Committee for the Preservation of the National Capitol Records, 1949–1958. Held by the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. 1800 establishments in