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Pop quiz time: Which member of Capitol Hill is known for having a temper that can shake the earth, is ranked second as most powerful ruler and has a uncanny fixation with water?
His title isn't Senator, Representative or even president. This member is commonly known as a god with a greedy, quarrelsome personality, and he has been around since 1898.
Neptune, god of the sea in Roman mythology, has been overseeing the entrance to the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress since the year after the building opened. And it only makes sense for him to be surrounded by his element, water. He is larger than life, and if standing would tower over viewers at about 12 feet tall. He is accompanied by his left-hand-merman son, Triton, and his staff - various sea nymphs.
The Court of Neptune Fountain serves several purposes: aesthetic beauty, historical reminder and doorman to the Library.
"It's kind of a focal point of the exterior of the building. It greets people when they come into the library," said Barbara Wolanin, the curator in the Office of the...