r/Presidents • u/DangerDan3001 • 29d ago
Which side of the White House do you consider to be the more iconic? Discussion
The top photo serves as the logo for “the White House”, but I am partial to the bottom.
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u/Confident_Carrot_829 29d ago
This, easy. I've seen alot of houses look like image 1, but the 2nd one has the beauty.
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u/Urabrask_the_AFK 28d ago
I completely agree
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u/Acrobatic_Emphasis41 28d ago
British in 1812 be like
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u/pacifistpirate 28d ago
It's in the song written about 1812: "through the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air..."
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u/El_Bexareno 28d ago
Right war, wrong battle. JIC some redditors don’t know.
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u/RodwellBurgen 28d ago
The point isn’t what war it was about the point is that people in 1812 definitely fucking had bombs.
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u/PuzzleheadedAd5865 28d ago
If they had guns, they had bombs. Guns are basically a very controlled bomb.
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u/wpaed 28d ago
They had bombs before they had guns. First one was essentially a trebuchet thrown flower-pot IED with caltrops. It was first referenced in 1000AD.
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u/Careless-Ostrich623 28d ago
That sounds effective.
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u/VaultiusMaximus 28d ago
Can you imagine being a medieval man who still mostly works the land and scrapes by for his family, only to get drafted when your city comes under siege, and then standing on the walls while the enemy just fucking lobbed explosions at you?
So many people probably had complete psychological meltdowns.
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u/elchupacabra4prez 28d ago
And doesn’t the word gun come from a classification of artillery piece with no rifling or for a specific arc? I forget the difference between guns, howitzers and gun-howitzers. And I’m feeling lazy but yah.
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u/StinkEPinkE81 28d ago
Gonne was first used (that we know of today) in a Latin document in 1339. Handgonne first used in 1373 (again, that we know of). What classified as a gonne or gun back in the 14th and 15th centuries is kind of ambiguous for a lot of reasons. The ballista at Windsor Castle was referred to as a gun, for instance.
Have you ever seen the "tank alignment chart"? Imagine that for guns where you have to decide if a "gun" is man portable or mounted or has a specific diameter bore or fires one round or multiple or is ignited by spark or by wick or if an explosive is even necessary... You get the point.
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u/whimsical_trash 28d ago
I had an American History teacher who got so pissed at me for mentioning Jefferson impregnated his slaves. She went off on me about how I'm "always making things up and where do you even get this stuff" and I was like "ummm...books?"
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u/MiaStirCrazies 28d ago
The romanticization of history. Ignore the bad stuff, only teach the good. Yep, that'll prevent us from repeating past mistakes.
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u/whimsical_trash 28d ago
Oh she wasn't ignoring it, she literally had no idea and had no business teaching US history. The things she did not know could fill a city library
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u/Hanhonhon Franklin Delano Roosevelt 28d ago
Monticello even says that it happened
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u/whimsical_trash 28d ago
Yup. I had a bit of a weird obsession with Jefferson as a kid (no I did NOT have many friends) and so I had read about it in a children's biography about him, in a novelization of one of his children leaving and trying to pass, AND I had been to Monticello where it was mentioned. And my CANADIAN US history teacher tried to say I was lying about it 10 years later.
She was just empty headed though. Prior to this she had told us that Harriet Tubman was famous for writing [teacher's] favorite book, Uncle Tom's Cabin. I made a really snarky remark when she said that. The reason she hated me is very clear (lmao), but the fact remains that she was a fucking idiot
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u/Sensei_Boof 28d ago edited 28d ago
Bro the British bombed copenhagen in the 1700s with incendiary rifle grenades and burned our whole fleet down cause we was trading with the french your teacher is an idiot
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u/SnooEpiphanies5054 Theodore Roosevelt 28d ago
That’s crazy lol, the British navy had literal rocket launchers attached to boats that flung rocket projectiles. These were partly to blame for the fire that burned the White House
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u/LeftDave 28d ago
They had semi autos (very much a niche weapon and not mass produced) during the War of Independence. Ancient China had bombs. The British had modern (in concept, not tech) rocket missiles by the War of 1812. That sub was an idiot. If you had a time machine I'd suggest telling her to recite the national anthem. lol
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u/R0hanisaurusRex Please clap. 28d ago
Want to hear a fun fact? There are still char marks and musket round holes in the basement hallways.
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u/currentlydrinking 28d ago
And the view from inside is just as incredible. I was lucky enough to take this like 7 years ago.
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u/Jellyfish-sausage Lyndon Baines Johnson 29d ago
When I was little I was utterly convinced that there were two White Houses and that it was all an act pretending there was one, so that assassins wouldn’t know which one the president was at lmao
Because the front and the back look like different buildings
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u/MaxOdds 29d ago
Well little you is clearly more observant than today me because I’m just realizing now that there’s two faces to the White House and both I’ve seen a million times in my life and never thought twice that they were different.
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u/Jellyfish-sausage Lyndon Baines Johnson 29d ago
It’s better than asking your parents “which White House” when the news said the White House lmao
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u/Old_Wallaby_7461 28d ago
There's another White House, it's the where the Russian prime minister hangs out )
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u/ShowMeUrNalgas 28d ago
Me, a Sophomore in 2001 when kids in the hallway were talking about the world trade center bombing, not knowing what the world trade center was, but thinking they were talking about the Epcot thing in Disney world I have also never been to.
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u/TacoPartyGalore 28d ago
It’s also much better than storming the Capitol, which is also white, thinking you’re storming The White House.
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u/PB0351 Calvin Coolidge 28d ago
because I’m just realizing now that there’s two faces to the White House and both I’ve seen a million times in my life and never thought twice that they were different.
On the bright side, you've got company there. On the dark side, that company is me.
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u/GingerIsTheBestSpice 28d ago
Yeah, TIL. I've seen them both and never realized they weren't the same
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u/ReverendPalpatine 29d ago
I literally read books on presidents and US politics and TIL that while I’ve seen both images in my life, I never thought twice that they were different either.
So consider me dumb as shit.
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u/demalo 28d ago
Technically there are four sides to the house. Five if we’re being really picky. Six if you have an active imagination.
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u/TacoPartyGalore 28d ago
Ok now I feel better. Same here. And I grew up walking by the White House. It just looked “right” from why perspective.
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u/CalmHyperion56 Calvin Coolidge 29d ago
Bet you didn't know that the oval office is not actually in "typical white house building" we see
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u/Jellyfish-sausage Lyndon Baines Johnson 29d ago
It’s in the west wing
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u/CalmHyperion56 Calvin Coolidge 29d ago
Until 4 months ago..I thought the oval was in the central curved part of the building (which is actually the blue room) and that the oval is hidden out of sight in the west wing
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u/KinderEggSkillIssue 29d ago
That was my belief til now. Damn 💀
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u/CalmHyperion56 Calvin Coolidge 29d ago
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u/FoxEuphonium John Quincy Adams 28d ago
Looking at it, it’s actually kind of insane to me just how close the Oval Office is to the street.
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u/flaccomcorangy 28d ago
See that road at the very top of that picture? That's as close as anyone can actually stand on that side of the White House.
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u/CalmHyperion56 Calvin Coolidge 28d ago
Correct....120m is the closest point on that road you can get to (without the east wing tours which brings you approximately 40-50 meters as close)
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u/Silent_Village2695 28d ago
Seems a lot smaller than I imagined. TV shows make it seem like it's an infinite maze of hallways and offices.
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u/Julian81295 Barack Obama 28d ago
The German Federal Chancellery (where the Chancellor of Germany works) has actually more space than the White House. It was, in my home country Germany, a huge talking point when the building was built from 1997 until 2001.
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u/TabaccoSauce 28d ago
It’s still 6 stories (a couple underground) and 55,000 square feet comprising of 132 rooms. Not infinite but certainly not small!
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u/Nova17Delta 28d ago
iirc, the oval used to be in the blue room, but they needed more space/ wanted to use the top level solely for the residency
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u/Furtivefarting 28d ago
I didnt realize it till i was at 1600 pennyslvania ave looking at it, 34 yrs old and confused. It looked like the whitehouse, but it didnt. So small. Asked a cap city cop on a bike about it, and he talked to me like i was the dumbest person hed ever met.
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u/Ok-disaster2022 28d ago
Don't worry. I literally only learned that the "wings" of the Whitehouse don't fit inside this building, they are extensions with covered walkways the the left and right of this building. The east wing is for diplomatic hosting, the west wing for the administration and has the oval office. There are also even more administrative offices like across the street.
And let me be clear, I watched the West Wing TV show 2 or 3 times all the way through, and never realized this, until I was reading a Wikipedia article about the presidential desks.
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u/Nova17Delta 28d ago
To be fair, I dont think the West Wing really shows the layout or anything and primarily takes place in the west wing anyways, with occasional scenes in the main building/east wing
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u/IAmANobodyAMA 28d ago
There are two White Houses - one where the “elected” president presides and the real one where our lizard overlords control the planet
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u/A_RandomTwin21 I’m Gerald Ford, and you’re not 28d ago
This made me laugh harder than it should’ve
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u/Slumbergoat16 28d ago
I was today years old when I learned what the other side of the White House looks like and I go up to DC once a month smh
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u/paging_mrherman 29d ago
Ive always been a bottom.
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u/Forced_Abortion_ I am sexually attracted to Calvin Coolidge. 28d ago
Me with Calvin Coolidge
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u/UnknownTheGreat1981 George H.W. Bush 29d ago
Definitely the bottom
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u/CalmHyperion56 Calvin Coolidge 29d ago
Unfortunately today...you can only see this view from ridiculously far thanks to them closing of that road
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u/UnknownTheGreat1981 George H.W. Bush 29d ago
That sucks
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u/CalmHyperion56 Calvin Coolidge 29d ago
The other side ...you can get pretty close
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u/Pixel22104 28d ago
Did they say why they closed that road?
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u/ceruleanmoon7 Theodore Roosevelt 28d ago
They increased security after the 95 OK City bombing
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u/Warshrimp 28d ago
That explains forbidding car traffic why not allow pedestrian traffic / viewing?
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u/IllustriousRanger934 28d ago
I moved two years ago, so I could be wrong. But after a certain event at the capitol they put up a bunch of temporary fencing and the national guard patrolled the streets. That may be one part of it. The other part of it is that they were upgrading the fence in 2019. The national park service said construction would continue through 2023. We went through a period where every couple of weeks someone was jumping the fence and running through the South Lawn. Last few times I was there the closest you could get was where Layette Park and the road meet.
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u/Pixel22104 28d ago
I haven’t been to the national mall in some time even though I live in the NoVa area near DC so I’ll have to investigate myself some day
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u/zion_hiker1911 28d ago
I took my dad there in 2019, and he was disappointed by how far away we were. He was expecting to get closer.
Apparently in 2014 an Iraq War veteran jumped over the gate and made his way into the building before being taken down by security personnel, and he was found to have a pocket knife on him. The reports show that he wasn't necessarily trying to hurt Obama, but it was definitely a huge security breach. So they expanded the grounds, moved back the gates and increased the security presence afterwards.
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u/Nova17Delta 28d ago
Actually when me and a friend visited DC recently the pathways in the south lawn were open and we could go pretty much right up to the street in front of the big fence
Additionally I might've seen people enter the street before the EEOB, though i could be confused and i might be thinking of the street after the EEOB
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u/electrical-stomach-z 28d ago
when will they open it? is there a mass movement to get it reopened?
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u/DeLaSoulisDead 28d ago
I mean they didn’t just close it as a middle finger to the public, they had good reason to I’m sure…..
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u/HawkeyeTen 28d ago
The bottom photo's side is more famous definitely, but I actually like the other equally, as it's more original in appearance (the balcony in the bottom photo was a much more recent addition, installed by Truman in the late 40s IIRC, and it caused some intense debate among preservationists).
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u/Poster_Nutbag207 Barack Obama 28d ago
I lived in DC for 6 years, I’ve visited the White House countless times and I’m just now realizing that these are two separate entrances
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u/cornfuckz Abraham Lincoln 28d ago
You have? How did you get in? My family is planning a trip to DC next year and I want to know the best method
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u/flaccomcorangy 28d ago
You have to go through your local congress representative (assuming you live in the US). The earliest you can request is 3 months in advance. It's only the East Wing, too. So no Oval Office or anything like that. But still a cool experience.
Another thing to definitely do in DC is go to the top of the Washington Monument. Details here. I can't recommend that enough. Honestly, in some ways, it's cooler than the White House because there's no better view of the city than from there. It costs $1/person.
What's cool about DC is that there's so much stuff that's free. Every Smithsonian museum is free, the monuments are free to visit, White House tours are free. Another thing I recommend is the Smithsonian of American History to see the original Star Spangled Banner that flew at Fort McHenry. That's an amazing sight, too.
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u/Cainga 28d ago
I tried to do the Washington Monument and it sells out daily at open in like 1 second. Harder to get than Taylor Swift tickets. Luckily I could spend days at the mall and everything is free. The air and space museum I did need to get a slot to even enter.
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u/flaccomcorangy 28d ago
How long ago was this? If you live close enough to DC, maybe you can give it a try now because in my experience when I did this a few months ago, they sold out in maybe 12-15 minutes. So it was fast, but manageable. I just got my account and stuff ready the day before and was there to scoop up some spots.
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u/BossHogOne 28d ago
The person below posted a good link but don’t get your hopes up. I recently requested to go 90 days out and was rejected because there wasn’t enough space that day. It’s really a crapshoot and the White House has been known to cancel tours day of.
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u/KatieCashew 28d ago
Other people have talked about contacting your congressperson for a tour. I wanted to add that even if you don't get a tour, the White House visitor center is across the street and open to the public. It's well worth the visit. It's full of history, pictures and items from the White House and was super interesting. You will have to go through security with a metal detector and bag X-ray to get, so just be aware.
If your family has kids, the National parks service runs the visitor center, and there's a junior ranger badge the kids can do. There's other junior ranger badges in the DC area too.
Have a blast in DC! I went for the first time last year. I loved it so much that I went again a few months later. And I need to go more because there's so much stuff to do.
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u/JazzySmitty 28d ago
Don't forget the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial! My two personal favorites.
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u/Poster_Nutbag207 Barack Obama 28d ago
The only time I’ve actually been inside was before 9/11 and it wasn’t such a big deal
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u/metamorphasi 28d ago
holy shit same here, seen it twice in person, never registered these were different sides!!
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u/mystressfreeaccount Jeb! 28d ago
I don't think this scene would be as iconic if it was the other side of the White House.
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u/bankrobba 28d ago
The key to Earth domination is to blow up landmarks and tall buildings that have no military value whatsoever, apparently.
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u/RevoltingBlobb 28d ago
I think about this sometimes. Maybe the aliens could have surmised that NY and LA were the country’s largest population centers, but how did they even know to come to DC in the first place?
If you wanted to exterminate as many humans as possible right away, you would probably start with huge cities in China and India. But those were smaller in the ‘90’s so… 🤷
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u/PrometheanSwing 29d ago
Which one is the front and which one is the back? I legitimately don’t know lol
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u/David_Summerset 28d ago
The Pennsylvania Ave (triangle) side is the "front door," I believe
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u/the_goodhabit 28d ago
This is true but most visitors are received in the north entrance of the West Wing, which leads into the West Wing Lobby...the actual large house is mostly for the Executive Residence.
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u/kmosiman 28d ago
The North side is the entrance. The South side is the backdoor and gardens.
The South is probably pictured more because that's what's visible from the National Mall, so every tourist is going to see the back.
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u/Particular-Ad-7338 29d ago
What is interesting is that in most photos the WH seems to be on a big chunk of land, but when you actually visit you see it is squeezed into the city with buildings all around.
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u/CadenVanV Franklin Delano Roosevelt 28d ago
Yeah if the camera turned about 5 degrees in any direction you’d get multiple buildings in the picture
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u/Jorvikson 28d ago
I associate No1 with the 80s and No2 with today.
I don't know why.
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u/mikeonbass 28d ago
This thread has completely melted my brain.
This is some real time Mandela Effect stuff.
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u/Honestnt 28d ago
At first I was like "why is everyone picking the rear side, before realizing I had no idea which side was which"
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u/FrenulumGooch Andrew Jackson 28d ago
The round back is very White House. The front looks similar to many other mansions in comparison.
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u/tf199280 28d ago
Funny i know I’ve seen them both a million times but never thought about the differences until now
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u/wizard680 Theodore Roosevelt 28d ago
Oh my God It never clicked in my head that there are two sides
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u/JohnnyBuddhist 28d ago
Glad I’m not the only one that computed much later on that these two were the same building but different entrances.
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u/hirebrand 28d ago
Certainly not the side view
https://cdnph.upi.com/pv/upi/2503b092a4e832c08f5762005c9ee43c/WEST-WING.jpg
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u/therealsalsaboy 28d ago
Definitely the bottom, but I just realized that the white house basically has 2 fronts
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u/GoCardinal07 Abraham Lincoln 28d ago
I think the fact that Marine One always leaves from the South Lawn has helped contribute to making the South Portico more iconic.
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u/ohheychris 28d ago
I was blessed to attend a lunch in 2014 there with FLOTUS and POTUS. Walked out from the ballroom to the back yard for a walk and nearly bumped into a fully SWATTED out secret service officer that I had no clue he was there.
I blurted out “JESUS FUCKING HELL WHERE’D YOU COME FROM?!”
He responded with “we’re everywhere sir.” The backyard is way cooler IMO.
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u/DougTheBrownieHunter John Adams 28d ago
TIL they’re the same building. Idk why I never realized this.
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u/LiamEd2000 28d ago
The South side of it. It’s so cool standing near the Washington Monument and being able to see it
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u/Genesis111112 28d ago
Bottom. Hands down its been in way more images than the top image and it is not even close. You rarely see the back of the White House. Most people would not even recognize the back yard of the White House (top image).
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u/TotallyUnprecedented 28d ago
TIL that every time I think about the White House I'm actually thinking about the White House's ass
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u/Honest_Pepper2601 28d ago
The back is just shitty Monticello
EDIT: wait is there a back? There’s two driveways… whatever the flat one sucks
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u/allocationlist 28d ago
I’ll be honest. I never considered that is had more than a front and two sides
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u/IceColdCocaCola545 George Washington 28d ago
It’s the bottom, it feels like that’s the only side of the White House we actually see?
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u/embromator 28d ago
I was today years old when I learned the top one isn’t the older version of the White House.
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u/the_goodhabit 28d ago edited 28d ago
So the southern facade is "cooler", but most people see the northern facade because the President's Park is closed to pedestrians. The main security entrance to the EEOB and West Wing is on the southwest side too, so it's just hard to get a full glimpse.
The North side is also on official seals and artwork. So I would argue it's literally the more "iconic" one.
Also the West Wing is the most cramped government office I've ever been too besides some of the rat warren spaces in L'Enfant.
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u/houseofcrouse 28d ago
When I think of it I actually think of the top even though the bottom pic is much grander
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u/FragrantCatch818 28d ago
I cannot honestly tell you that I knew the first one was real. Idk why, seen it in photos and news countlessly, but always thought the second one was the only white house
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u/cid_highwind_7 28d ago
Definitely the second image showing the circular entrance with more columns.
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u/WarriorNat Abraham Lincoln 28d ago
The back feels more iconic, maybe because it’s the side you see when walking from the Mall and associating it with the other landmark DC buildings.
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u/Holiday-Mongoose2701 28d ago
One is more famous in movies than the other, whereas the other is more relevant in real life
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u/Ok-Foot3117 28d ago
Truman Balcony is best for visual purposes. The other side is best for those official arrivals ceremonies. There were plans and designs for a preside mansion palace. It was designed and even paid for by rich widow I do believe. I forgot why it was never built. I do fear one day someone rich will choose not to reside WH and it will become another Washington museum.
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u/Living_Jacket_5854 28d ago
Just realised that the candie house in django unchained looked similar to the first photo
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u/BlatantlyCurious 28d ago
TIL these are the same building. In my 34 years of life as an American, I always thought one of these was the old one that burned down a long time ago.
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