At least 15 ghosts haunt the Capitol Building

10 of these restless entities are listed below.

1) The French engineer, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, was commissioned by President Washington to design the new capitol city, which included streets that were 100 feet wide, and an avenue which was 400 feet wide and a mile long, but unfortunately went a bit too far and demolished a new manor house because it blocked the view. Washington fired L'Enfant, and Congress refused to pay him for the work that was already done. Consequently, the apparition of Monsieur Pierre Charles L'Enfant has been seen pacing the cavernous Capitol basement, still awaiting payment for his bill, now over 200 years delinquent

This ghost is described as a "sad little man", dressed in 18th century attire, who scurries along the corridors of the Capitol Building with many papers stuffed under his arm, which were probably his city plans. It has been reported that whenever a street change is proposed, his ghost moans and cries as he hurries along the corridors.

2) The glowing ghost of John Quincy Adams has been seen in the grand hall that was formerly the House of Representatives Chamber, at the exact spot where his desk used to be located. He collapsed at his desk and died in a room off this grand hall, before he could give a speech honoring the military leaders responsible for the victory in the Mexican-American War, a conflict that Adams had been against from the beginning.

3) Abram Garfield, who was killed after being in Office for only 4 months, has been seen in the halls of the Capitol Building.

4) His Assassin was seen on a stairway in the Capitol Building.

5) Henry Wilson's Vice-presidential term was cut short when he died of pneumonia, which he caught while taking a bath in facilities that were formerly in the basement. His apparition has been seen in the Senate Wing, and has been heard sneezing and coughing by guards outside the Vice-president's office, when no one seen was there.

Also, in the doorway of the V.P.'s office, it has been reported that the smell of old-fashioned bath soap was noticed, and a deep chill could be felt.

6) The easily recognized ghostly apparition of General John Alexander has been known to appear at 12:30 AM, looking displeased, while listening at the door of the room once used by the Senate Committee on Military and Militia, a committee that he once chaired in the 1890's. He is described as having a long mustache, with dark, piercing eyes, and long black hair.

General John Alexander's apparition also likes to poke around a basement storage room, perhaps looking for his stuffed horse that by mistake was put into storage.

7) A ghost of a custodian, who died at work, has been known to help the living employees do their job. A mop was seen swishing back and forth over the marble floors, being pushed by this unseen entity.

8) During the middle to late 1800's, the Library of Congress was located in the Capitol Building. A Mr. Twine was a truly dedicated worker and can still be heard by the guards, stamping away in his office.

9) A coworker of Twine's died of a stroke after putting $6,000 dollars of government bonds in a rarely used library book, because he didn't trust the banks. He can be heard opening up books, and flipping through their pages, looking for his retirement money. No such bonds were ever found by the living.

10 ) A demon cat appears and scares late night workers who have to go to the deep, dark parts of the basement of the Capitol Building. These frightening appearances usually take place before a national tragedy happens and when administrations change. This account was reported by a guard and others. It is first seen as a normal, black cat, which purrs happily as it approaches the unsuspecting human victim in the dimly lit hallway. As this cat apparition comes closer, though, its body swells to the size of a tiger, and the sweet purring turns into a vicious snarl. With its claws extended, this huge cat leaps at the human contact, and then vanishes into thin air, leaving the human being terrified, but unhurt.

Why is there an angry cat apparition haunting the basement?

Many years ago, when the Capitol Building was infested with mice, cats were let go in the basement to take care of the problem. All the cats were then caught and given to good homes. However, maybe one cat was left behind. Oops! Sorry kitty.

Still Haunted? Definitely yes. Many witnesses interviewed for various ghost specials seen on cable stations have experienced the above manifestations.

http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/wadc/house3.htm

[PAPA G]

aaaah...baloney.

i wonder if the so-called ghost are really the souls of the departed awaiting redemption???

[Big Dog]

"Who ya gonna call?"

< cue "Ghostbuster's" theme. >

[BattleRifleG3]

That sounds like a basis for a really funny Harry Potter parody.

Ghostbusters, you say?

Who you gonna call?

[Shaun]

probably just some bums in the basement

[whirlwind]

well i believe in the holy ghost,and i believe if god wanted a soul to come back for some reason im sure he would have no trouble making it happen. but i doubt all these so called hauntings across the nation. most of them seem to be either tourist traps or some bee hive wearing woman in a trailer park. i have already informed my family that when they pass on if they find out that they can come back and haunt me,to just stay the heck away from me! lol i got enough trouble as it is.

[steel_warrior1]

Oh My God, Its A Custodian!!!! Everyone Run For Your Lives! Aaaaaaaaah He Is Mopping Me! Oh Sweet Jesus, Not The Cat.

[NRAJOE]

Give me a break...

[Rockabilly88]

I don't know about any white house ghosts, but I believe in ghosts in general. I've seem some pretty sketchy examples of paranormal activity. For example one night I was trying to sleep and I was watching the door in my room and the door nob turned and the door cracked. I looked up for a minute and the door remained cracked, but when I came towards it the door slamed shut. I turned on the light to my bedroom and opened the door and noone was there. On examining the rest of the house I found that everone else was asleep and drafts don't turn door nobs.

[11c_infantry]

For me it's kind of a toss up. Although I've seen and heard some strange things -- had a really strange experience at Fort Benning, GA once that involved musket fire and voices when no one was around -- I still want empirical evidence of the paranormal. I guess you can call me a reluctant skeptic.

About paranormal phenomena
Paranormal phenomena, or 'psi' phenomena, have been part of human life throughout recorded history and, no doubt, prehistory too. They have often been accepted as part of the normal, orthodox picture of the world. Over the past three centuries, however, a new orthodoxy has arisen - in the form of scientific practice and scientific doctrines - which systematically excludes psi phenomena from any serious consideration.
To a large degree, this exclusion can be traced to science's roots being firmly embedded in materialism. From that perspective, psi phenomena are impossible, and so science sees no point in investigating them; conversely, anyone who does investigate them is presumed to be an incompetent scientist. In this vicious circle, anyone who genuinely wants to investigate psi phenomena - if for no other reason than that they are part of the world we inhabit - will find tremendous peer pressure, and risk of damage to her reputation and career prospects, serving as effective deterrents.

One of the ways in which this impasse can be broken is to go back to the origins of the scientific world-view in the seventeenth century, and see that there is another route that can be taken, which leads to a metaphysic radically opposed to materialism, but which does not in any way devalue or discredit the validity that scientific knowledge has in its own domain, the realm of the physical.

George Berkeley was an innovative philosopher living at the time when the scientific ball was first set rolling. He had the perspicacity to see that the direction it was taking would lead away from all things spiritual. But he also had the vision and intelligence to formulate an alternative philosophy, one rich enough to encompass both science's growing understanding of the material realm, and the humanly important realm of spirit.

In this book, I shall aim first to present a short account of Berkeley's metaphysics; second, to describe the range and characteristics of psi phenomena, referring in particular to recent scientific research by the relatively few people who have been actively working in this field; and finally to develop some speculations on how Berkeley can help us to make sense of those phenomena. I shall also consider how this theory may help us to understand some of the more esoteric phenomena such as ufos.

I shall not be presenting masses of laboratory data, or ancedotes, of alleged psi phenomena in order to try to persuade you that they are real. My business here is not to argue the case for the existence of the phenomena. That is done very well by those who are actively involved in parapsychological research, such as Dean Radin in his excellent book, The Conscious Universe; and by journalists, such as Jim Schnabel and John Keel, who have carried out first-hand investigations of people who have experienced the paranormal; and by scientists such as Jacques Vallee who have studied the weirder forms of the paranormal. Here, my starting point is the assumption that the investigators have done their job well, and that their reports can be trusted. My aim is then to consider, if these phenomena are real, how can they be explained? What model of the universe do we need to have for us to be able to make sense of psi phenomena?

Obviously, this approach is open to the criticism that some of the reported phenomena may not really exist, that maybe the investigators were blinded by their own beliefs and accidentally, or otherwise, mis-reported the data. Well, that is a risk that one inevitably has to take. It is a sterile exercise to limit ourselves to just accumulating data: we need to understand it. I do not imagine that the theoretical approach that I propose in this book is the final answer. But we have to start somewhere, and Berkeley's metaphysics seem to me to be a good starting point.

There is, moreover, a reciprocal relationship between theory and experimentation. Theories, if they have any value, predict properties of the phenomena. Those predictons suggest further experiments or observations that should be made, which in turn yield new data that either confirm the theory or entail revisions to the theory. Thus theorising is not something that we do after all the data are in: it complements the gathering of data.

from http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~ursa/philos/psi1.htm

half of us believe in ghosts anyway :right:

[ducktapehero]

I do, I think I have one in my house.

Originally Posted by ducktapehero

I do, I think I have one in my house.

please tell me more ?

my wife firmly believes our first house was haunted

[Dale]

Originally Posted by Bulletproof

my wife firmly believes our first house was haunted

Well, it was if you were living there, he he he he.