West Wing, Office building at White House, United States

This three-story office building on the grounds of the White House in Washington, D.C., houses the Oval Office and other key workspaces for the American government. The rooms are arranged around a central corridor, from which you can reach the Cabinet Room, the national security briefing room, and the offices of the president's closest advisors.

Theodore Roosevelt commissioned the building in 1902 to separate the growing administrative staff from the private living quarters of the presidential family. Later presidents expanded and modernized the rooms several times, with the Oval Office added in 1909 and taking its current form in 1934.

For more than a century, the American president and closest aides have worked here day after day, making the place one of the most tightly secured government buildings in the world. The building is a symbol of executive power in the United States and appears regularly in news broadcasts and political reports from Washington.

The building is not open to the public and can only be entered by accredited personnel and invited guests with special clearance. Those walking nearby can see only the exterior facade from Pennsylvania Avenue, as high security fences surround the entire grounds.

The Roosevelt Room was long called the "Fish Room": Franklin D. Roosevelt kept an aquarium there, and both he and John F. Kennedy hung trophy fish on its walls. Nixon renamed it in 1969 for Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt. By tradition, a portrait of Franklin hangs over the mantel under a Democratic president and one of Theodore under a Republican.