The somewhat hidden ruins of the US Capitol building deep in a forest in Washington D.C.

PenguinSix is an apolitical guy in a political town who likes to walk a lot. He has hiked over 17,000 miles (27,000kms) in the past six years and is still walking today. He is an American expat who spent the last decade in Hong Kong with his family and is now back in Washington DC, continuing his daily ritual of taking very long hikes around the city catching the sights and sounds of the city while live streaming to share with others.

“A cold weekend away from the rather quiet political scene in DC when not much is happening at the Capitol or the White House, so I decided to go for a bit of an adventure. Sometimes when you construct something new you have to destroy something old first. That’s true when it comes to the US Capitol building in Washington D.C. as well. There’s just happens to be a bit of an urban legend that is actually true–you can find the ruins of the US Capitol building tucked quietly away in the middle of a forest in Washington D.C. if you know where to look. Today I hiked up into the woods to find the US Capitol Stones, remnants of a 1950s era construction product that ended up in a pile buried deep away behind a maintenance shed. Officially it’s not open to the public, but on a snowy and cold day, it’s not like there is a security guard outside telling you to get lost. We also went up to the US Arboretum to check out the famous Capitol Columns, 22 pillars that used to sit outside the US Capitol but were eventually replaced as the building got bigger.”