The first congressional office building was constructed immediately after the turn of the 20th century to relieve overcrowding in the United States Capitol.

The Constitution Ave. side is a quasi replica of the easternmost façade of the Palais du Louvre in Paris.

Eighteen Corinthian columns support an entablature and a coffered dome, whose glazed oculus floods the rotunda with sunlight.

The growth of staff and committees in the twenty years following its completion resulted in the addition of a fourth side, the First Street Wing, to the originally U-shaped building.

The building received extensive pop culture visual cachet in the 1970s when film footage of the southwest corner was regularly used to represent the headquarters of the fictional OSI organization in the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.

Chuck Schumer, the then-Senate Minority Leader announced on August 25, 2018, that he would introduce a resolution to rename the building after Senator John McCain from Arizona, who died of brain cancer earlier that day.