Next was the room in which the Constitution was debated. George Washington presided, but did not say much. His presence helped maintain decorum, though.

Benjamin Franklin, pointing to the half-sun painted in brilliant gold on the back of Washington's chair, said:

I have often in the course of the session ... looked at that [chair] behind the president, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now, at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising, and not a setting, sun.

Leaving the debate room, we went upstairs, to where the first U.S. Senate met. (We don't have pictures of the House of Representatives room.) The fact that one was downstairs and one was upstairs is what led to calling them the "upper and lower chambers".

The Senate chamber was nice.

There are also other rooms upstairs, for various groups to meet in. I didn't note what this was for, or who is in the painting.

View from the front window, upstairs, in Independence Hall, overlooking theLiberty Bell Center and, further back, the Visitors Center.