<P> On the ground floor is an area known as the Crypt . It was intended to be the burial place of George Washington, with a ringed balustrade at the center of the Rotunda above looking down to his tomb . However, under the stipulations of his last will, Washington was buried at Mount Vernon . The Crypt houses exhibits on the history of the Capitol . A compass star inlaid in the floor marks the point at which Washington, D.C. is divided into its four quadrants and is the basis for how addresses in Washington, D.C., are designated (NE, NW, SE, or SW). However, due to the retrocession of the Virginia portions of the District, the geographic center of the city lies near the White House . </P> <P> Within the Crypt is Gutzon Borglum's massive Abraham Lincoln Bust . The sculptor had a fascination with large - scale art and themes of heroic nationalism, and carved the piece from a six - ton block of marble . Borglum carved the bust in 1908, and it was donated to the Congress by Eugene Meyer, Jr., and accepted by the Joint Committee on the Library, in the same year . The pedestal was specially designed by the sculptor and installed in 1911 . The bust and pedestal were on display in the Rotunda for many years until 1979 when, after a rearrangement of all sculpture in the Rotunda, they were placed in the Crypt . Borglum was a patriot; believing that the "monuments we have built are not our own," he looked to create art that was "American, drawn from American sources, memorializing American achievement", according to a 1908 interview article . Borglum's depiction of Lincoln was so accurate, that Robert Todd Lincoln, the president's son, praised the bust as "the most extraordinarily good portrait of my father I have ever seen ." Supposedly, according to legend, the marble head remains unfinished (missing a left ear) to symbolize Lincoln's unfinished life . </P> <P> At one end of the room near the Old Supreme Court Chamber is a statue of John C. Calhoun . On the right leg of the statue, a mark from a bullet fired during the 1998 shooting incident is clearly visible . The bullet also left a mark on the cape, located on the back right side of the statue . </P> <P> Eleven presidents have lain in state in the Rotunda for public viewing, most recently Gerald Ford . The tomb meant for Washington stored the catafalque which is used to support coffins lying in state or honor in the Capitol . The catafalque is now on display in the Capitol Visitors Center for the general public to see when not in use . </P>

Who has laid in honor at us capital