Union Station

The American republic built its capital in a classical style perhaps harkening to the democratic ideals of ancient Greece or the republican ideals of ancient Rome and no doubt to convince visitors, and moreover itself, of the gravitas of its revolutionary sovereignty. By 1907, this architecture moved into imperialism, if not quite fascism, with the building of Washington's Union Station.

If one looks closely at the statues, and particularly the eagles, one sees a heaviness, something much more authoritarian than a democratic republic. For now this transition away from the democratic republic finds its full fascist flowering on the Mall, ironically, in the World War II memorial, which looks as if it had been designed by Albert Speer, himself.