Washington DC

The capital of the United States is a powerful place populated by both popular and not-so-popular politicians and their pals. It’s a sleek city reminiscent of the amazing architecture of ancient Rome. Get on the bus, Gus! We are going to wander around wonderful Washington DC on this week’s episode of FYI!

Transcript

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the capital of the united states is a powerful place populated by both popular and not so popular politicians and their pals it's a sleek city reminiscent of the amazing architecture of ancient rome[Music] get on the bus gus we're going to wander around wonderful washington d.c on this week's episode of f y i welcome to for your info english you got it[Music] hello hello hello and welcome to this another exciting edition of fyi and today we are going to washington d.c but don't get mixed up we're not going to washington state washington state is all the way across the country that's right washington state is in the pacific northwest today we're going to the east coast to washington d.c and what state is washington d.c in well that's a tricky question and we're going to get into that a little bit later on in the show but let me welcome you to this amazing city i can't wait to wander around i've been to washington dc twice but i've never been to washington state it is on my bucket list because it is also beautiful but today we're gonna focus on washington d.c the district of columbia washington or just dc call it whatever you will it's the capital of the united states of america let's take a look at the intro as always and see what vocabulary we can get from it i started out with the sound of a chopper or a helicopter some dos forms chop sp and put your head over there by the blades and see what happens no no don't do that i'm just kidding the capital of the united states is a powerful place i said mucho poder a powerful place populated iffy it's not populated it's populated by both popular and not so popular politicians and just be careful with that word too because a politician is the person the field they're in is called politics and don't forget about their pals sus colegas well it's important to have a lot of friends in washington d.c then i said it's a sleek city and i know that we've looked at this word in the past in past episodes of the podcast sleek is elegant with nice lines a sleek city reminiscent of the amazing architecture of ancient rome ancient rome right ancient no ancient ancient and architecture these are some difficult words we have here in the intro and then you heard the sound of a bus and i used a bus on purpose because as we'll see later in the episode there are a lot of protests in washington dc being the nation's capital when there's a cause people get on a bus they get together and they go there and they pick it and they protest so there was a reason i said get on the bus gus and that's like a funny little rhyming slang that we have in english supertel autoboost goose hey we just discovered a new rhyming slang in spanish but don't think that you guys are the only ones who like to rhyme you say mas pedo que alfredo right well we say as drunk as a skunk you say el que se fue a sevilla perdio socia well you know what we say you snooze you lose so we all like to rhyme i think and then i wrapped up the intro by saying we're going to wander around and that's another word that we've looked at wander the ambulat around wonderful maravilloso washington d.c so we just cleared up that washington is not in washington state we just said it's not even a state in fact it's located on the east bank of the potomac river that's the famous river in washington dc and it forms its southwestern and southern border with the u.s states of virginia and it also has a land border with the state of maryland so a lot of people who work in dc as we're going to discover don't live in washington dc proper but they live in maryland as many of the commuters do also in virginia as well and we're going to talk about the transport because they have a very important highway and well it's even an expression in american english but we'll look at that a little bit later what's the deal with this statehood i mean why isn't it one of the 50 states well the u.s constitution provides a federal district so it's not a state it's a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of congress so who's running the show there guillen that's right congress and the district is therefore not a part of any u.s state on purpose it was done by design and as we'll find out later on in the show washington dc was not the first capital of the united states but the city of washington was founded in 1791 and that was after the signing of what is called the residence act that was in 1790 the year before so 1791 it became the nation's capital and congress had their first session about nine years later that was in the year 1800 by the year 1801 the territory that was formerly part formerly as anterior mente formerly part of maryland and virginia officially became recognized as the federal district so they took some land from different surrounding states and they made a federal district but as i said let's see if you guys can guess how many capitals do you think there were before washington dc became the capital of the nation did you say five higher did you say seven okay you're getting warmer eight capitals the nation had eight capitals including in new jersey i believe delaware was another one i remember reading them but i can't remember them off the top of my head i think you say habrote brunto i believe in spanish now there have been many efforts to make the city into a state and those started even since the 1880s and even more recently in 2021 they're looking at a statehood bill which uh who knows it could be passed by the house of representatives and i've already mentioned some of the government but we'll go into more detail of the different branches of government the word branches such it's a really good word to know and the way it works is the city has a locally elected mayor maerus alcalde and a 13-member council and they've governed the district since 1973. now congress those are the big ones they're the ones who maintain supreme authority so these mayors and this council they can make a law but congress has the power to overturn that law and d.c residents they they elect a non-voting congressional delegate to the house of representatives but you know what that let me let me translate that for you a non-voting means that this person has no say no they don't have any representation in the senate so wait i'm living in the nation's capital and i can't vote i have no representation hmm this is strange and in 1961 they ratified the 23rd amendment to the united states constitution and that let district voters choose three presidential electors so the good news is finally they got to vote but they're still not a state well who knows by the time you listen to this they could become a state it's on the table as we say es all right so let's get into some government talk over here because these are words that even myself i've heard a million times i remember learning about them in history class but i still don't remember exactly what each one does it was a long time ago guys cut me some slack cut me some slack significant numbers so basically summing it up in a nutshell because we're not here to give a political lesson but there are three branches of the u.s federal government and they are centered in d.c number one is congress and they have legislative powers then you've got the president hanging out over at the white house and he's got the executive powers and the third branch is the supreme court and obviously they have the judicial power and guys to be honest i can't simplify it much more than that i can definitely complicate it if you want but i don't think that's the goal here now let's look at the city is it a logical city is it complicated is it hard to get around well technically no the city is divided into quadrants quadrants and those quadrants are centered around the capital building you say el capitolio and in washington dc there are as many as 131 neighborhoods and supposedly everything's kind of organized it was a city that was planned even though it was burned to the ground many important buildings in washington dc were burned to the ground and we're going to look at that and much more in the bonus part of today's show just a quick reminder guys there's a bonus part to this show every week and you can get bonus content you can get pdfs with all the vocabulary and expressions we look at plus you can join me in weekly and monthly classes if you want to find out how to become a member of our curious community go over to patreon.com slash alberto alonso and take a look at all the different options and as i said if you want a little sample i have no problem with sending you a sample just send me your email address and i'll show you what you're missing out on remember it's all happening at patreon.com alberto alonso and that said i'd love to give a shout out to all my students on patreon you guys are doing a fantastic job keep up the great work and a special shout out to my super duper students mara javier francisco roberto david jose maria mila alex patricio edgar and loles and don't forget about my interstellar students paco diego carmen and diana thank you so much and keep up the great work and if you guys are interested in joining them check it out it's patreon.com alberto alonso english should be an adventure and that's something that we all share in common that belief is so what are you waiting for join us on patreon in the bonus part of today's show we're going to take a look at more fun facts we'll also look at the cherry blossoms and how there's a typo on one of the most famous memorials yeah to air is human my amigos and of course we're gonna take a look at controversy crime and corruption in dc all that and much more in the bonus part now let's get back to those neighborhoods because these aren't any ordinary neighborhoods they have some of the most important buildings not in the u.s in the entire world well just look at this number i came across and seventy-seven foreign embassies that's right uh uh is an embassy there are i in plural there are 177 foreign embassies there are headquarters of multinational corporations trade unions syndicatos non-profit organizations lobbying groups which we'll talk about later on as well because you can't talk about washington d.c without talking about lobbying and we'll learn where that word came from also world banks the american red cross let's put it this way it's an important place to be if you're located in washington dc you're probably a huge entity and i'll tell you more too about my trips to washington dc in the bonus part one of the things that stood out the most in my mind was the fbi building oh man that i mean i'm still thinking about that trip but i'll tell you all about that in the bonus part of today's show right now i wanted to talk about some of the monuments that make this city what it is because some cities you got to go and you got to go in a museum and you got to go you know to a mall and all this stuff but no not washington dc you can just walk around because the city is a living museum it reminds me of rome as i said earlier in the show now i said there there's no mall and yes there is a mall i'm sure amal is but there's an area called the national mall but it's kind of like the main area in washington dc it's the area that everybody has seen with the lincoln memorial the reflecting pool the george washington monument and we'll talk about these more in detail in a moment but if you go to washington dc you have to take a stroll around the national mall and i highly recommend that you do it at night because the city sparkles at night these statues are lit up they're illuminated and it is simply beautiful i was a young kid and i still remember the night time in washington dc and just being in awe in a sombre trust me you guys are familiar with the national mall you've seen it in so many movies and in fact one i can think of one that comes to mind is forrest gump remember that reflecting pool and he's giving a speech that's the national mall some of the monuments that you'll find around the mall area is the lincoln memorial and i think you've all seen this one it's abraham lincoln the 16th president of the united states and he's sitting in a big chair and he's looking at the washington monument and he's also looking at the capital and it is just i mean it's very well landscaped landscaped precioso and the reflecting pool if you guys are on patreon i shared a lot of pictures of what washington dc looks like and as i said it's a planned city so they made it exactly the way they wanted to make it i'm sure you guys know the lincoln memorial as well this is where martin luther king jr you know martin luther king jr he made his famous i have a dream speech in 1963 right there in front of abe lincoln and why because of the emancipation proclamation because abe lincoln freed the slaves so that is a place that people who want equal rights go to to protest because of lincoln and the symbolism and as i said i'll tell you about a typo on the lincoln memorial in the bonus part of today's show another thing is the washington monument now this is a huge obelisk and construction began this is really interesting because they halted construction they stopped it right in the middle well there were other things going on such as the american civil war and things like that so what happened was they started building it in 1848 and then for 23 years 1854 to 1877 they stopped or as i said earlier halted the project so for 23 years it was on hold and you'll notice the difference in construction materials if you look at the washington monument it's two different colors so when was it finally finished well it was completed in 1884. all the internal work and all of that but the final memorial stones were not completed until 1888 so 50 years in the making and a lot of people say that this is a masonic symbol from the freemasons and that's another thing we'll look at in the bonus part of today's show a lot of the symbols the masonic symbols that you'll find again you can formulate your own opinion but i'll just give you the facts another thing that stood out in my mind from my trip and both trips i took one trip with the school our school trip and then another one with my dad and we visited this on both trips because it is just a place a solemn place and i remember reading the names of the fallen soldiers in vietnam and just my heart going out to them and it's a wall really but it's made of marble and it's built into the ground it's absolutely beautiful it's called the vietnam vets memorial it's located in in the national mall as i told you guys before that's the area that's where you get more bang for your buck as we say[Music] and this memorial wall was designed by an architect named maya lin and even if you're you know whatever your opinion may be on the vietnam war it is just a beautiful tribute to our fallen soldiers and i remember being really affected by it i was very moved and i went twice so it's definitely worth visiting the next one is the white house now this is a little bit more difficult because you don't just walk around you have to get a tour and it depends on the day and it's the white house guys there's only one building that is more secure than the white house and i think that's the pentagon possibly and we'll talk about that a little bit later but did you know that two alligators lived in the white house that's right we had two presidents that were alligators no it's a joke but we did have two presidents who owned alligators and not right after each other like there was a there were decades between when they were presidents those two presidents were john quincy adams and herbert hoover so there have been some weird pets we could do a whole episode just on the white house and you want to hear a fun fact george washington never lived there what what did you talk george washington never lived in the white house it was built after he died john adams was the first u.s president to live in the white house now i don't know if he enjoyed it as much as jimmy carter yeah jimmy carter was a movie buff and supposedly he watched 480 movies while he was in the white house that is more than any potus and what does potus mean the president of the united states and flotus the first lady of the united states so i can meet in twitter that's their handle nombre en twitter and don't try and find your way around the white house because you're gonna get lost in its 132 rooms six floors says plantas and 412 doors 147 windows 28 fireplaces eight staircases three elevators oh my god i think we're gonna do an episode on the white house in the future and we briefly mentioned the capitol building and we'll mention it because it's the other i guess it's the white house and the capitol building those are the two most important buildings again this is arguably so but i think most people want to visit these two places well the capitol building has its share of secrets there are kilometers and kilometers of tunnels underground that are supposedly reserved for senators and the public never gets to see this there's also a crypt that was made for george washington and he's not buried there are you serious they made a crypt for the guy in the most important building in the country and he doesn't even live there nope won't live it's a bad word to use he's not even resting there his final resting place as we say nope but the crypt is still there as i said we'll take a look at a lot more secrets in the bonus part of today's show but as you can see there's so much to see in dc hey wait i'm a poet and i didn't even know it and as i said before the night time is the right time okay i did that one on purpose well any time is the right time to enjoy washington dc i sure do hope you'll join us in the bonus part of today's fyi[Music][Music][Applause] you