The U.S. Capitol contains an empty tomb originally built to hold the remains of George Washington.
For years, social media users have claimed the U.S. Capitol contains a tomb that was originally built for George Washington, the first U.S. president, but was never used and remains empty.
The claim has appeared frequently on Reddit, where numerous posts about the tomb have popped up on subreddits including r/todayilearned and r/Presidents since at least 2016. It has also shown up multiple times on X, including in a post made on Aug. 8, 2024, which read:
just learned the us capitol building has a crypt built for george washington but he didn’t want to be interred there so it’s empty. my next question: who is the funniest person would could bury there?
(X user @questionableway)
While the Aug. 8, 2024, X post had a humorous tone, the underlying premise of it was true: A tomb intended for Washington was indeed built in the U.S. Capitol, and Washington’s remains were never buried there.
As the official website for the Architect of the Capitol explains, the space intended to serve as Washington’s tomb is located directly underneath a vaulted first-floor space known as the Crypt because of its “resemblance to similar areas in churches.” The resemblance is a result of the 40 columns that stand in the space, which serve to support the Capitol’s second-floor Rotunda.
Construction on the Capitol began in 1793, but no funerary purpose was planned for the building until after Washington died on Dec. 14, 1799. A little over a week later, on Dec. 23, 1799, Congress resolved “That a marble monument be erected by the United States in the Capitol, at the city of Washington; and that the family of General Washington be requested to permit his body to be deposited under it.”
Washington’s will, a transcript of which is available online as part of the National Archives’ Founders Online project, clearly expressed the former president’s personal desire to be buried in a brick vault at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia. However, Congress succeeded in securing the permission of Washington’s widow, Martha Washington, to transfer the remains to the Capitol.
The original structure of the Capitol was completed in the 1820s, and Congress began planning to transfer Washington’s remains to the building. The transfer was scheduled to take place in 1832, during celebrations for the centennial of Washington’s birth.
However, Congress’ plans were dashed by John Augustine Washington II, a relative of George and Martha Washington and the owner of Mount Vernon at the time, who refused to have Washington’s body disinterred from the brick tomb vault he had recently constructed in accordance with the instructions left in Washington’s 1799 will. Washington’s remains ended up staying at Mount Vernon, and the Capitol tomb remained empty.
Because a tomb intended for George Washington was built inside the U.S. Capitol and because Washington was never interred in it, we rate this claim as “True.”
