WASHINGTON - PO : USA - DC

   Congress Bells

*Location:

   Old Post Office Tower
   Nancy Hanks Center
   12th Street & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
   Washington, D.C., USA
   LL: N 38.89469, W 77.02755

Site locator map or
Also see our own Map Use Hints.

*Ringers:

   Washington Ringing Society
   Mary Clark, Area Representative
   T: (703)532-3410
   E: josephwc/@/aol/./com

*Contact:

   National Park Service
   T: (202)523-5691

*Schedule:

   Practice Thursday 1900-2100 (meet at
   tower elevator at 1850)

*Remarks:

   The bells were cast in 1976 and were
   presented to the USA in the same year,
   but were not installed until this
   tower was found to be suitable;
   they were first rung in 1983.

*Technical data:

   Ring of 10 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is D  in the middle octave
   Transposition is not applicable
   Keyboard range:     ROPE  /    NONE  
   There are no added semitones
   The whole instrument was made/installed in 1976-83
     with bells made by Whitechapel 
   Year of latest technical information source is 1991

*Links:

The Park Service Web pages for the Old Post Office Tower include some text about the Congress Bells.  But a broken link on the revised front page may prevent you from reaching here.  One page includes a small aerial view, where the tower is to the right of center.

The Washington Ringing Society presents a lot of information about both of the rings in this city.

Building photos from Emporis Buildings
(Also see our Emporis Advice.)

Where this work lies in the sequence of output of the Whitechapel bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.

Ranking among all North American rings by pitch/weight.
Ranking among all North American rings by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all North American rings by year of completion.

Ranking among all North American chimes by size (number of bells).

Index to all tower bell instruments in DC.

*Status:

   This page was built from the database on  3-May-08
   based on textual data last updated on 2008/04/27
   and on technical data last updated on 2006/08/18

Explanations of page format and keyboard range are available.

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