[Convention Extra] Capital-Sized Accommodations

Washington, D.C., is a big town. It’s full of powerful people, big stars and a huge history. Now, it’s also home to one of the largest hotels and resorts in the nation. Check out these stats while you’re trying to find your room among the labyrinth of hallways, forests and a musical fountain.

• The atrium trusses, which stretch from one side of the resort to the other, weigh 50 tons each. Together, they total 1,200 tons or 2.4 million pounds. To put that weight into perspective, it would take 45 space shuttle missions to launch these atrium trusses into the Earth’s orbit. 
• The highest point of the atrium is 230 feet high, meaning the 150-foot-tall space shuttle could easily be parked under it. That’s 18 stories, for those of you counting at home. The atrium is 240 feet — or 80 yards — wide.
• The entire property features a total of 10 million square feet of drywall, which equals 312,500 sheets. If you laid these sheets of drywall end to end, they would stretch 473 miles, or halfway to Chicago.
• Each meeting room in the convention center has enough data connectivity to transfer the entire Encyclopedia Britannica (both pictures and text) in one second. They also are each equipped with enough electrical power to service an average-sized, single-family home.
• The Gaylord National’s two 2,000-kilowatt emergency generators are capable of providing power to 400 individual homes.
• The structure has more than 50 different air handling systems.
• The property has more than 50,000 individual sprinkler heads and more than 57,500 light fixtures. If you replace, on average, one light bulb a month at your house, you would have to replace more than one light bulb an hour, 24 hours a day, in the hotel to achieve that same replacement rate.
• The Prince George’s Exhibit Hall is the size of three football fields and has enough space to accommodate up to 400 full-size, tractor-trailer trucks.
• The Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center encloses more than 2.4 million square feet of rooms, hallways and that giant atrium.
• If you wanted to spend one night in each of the 2,000 guest rooms at the Gaylord National Resort, it would take you more than five years. And a lot of packing.
• The indoor water fountain “performs” shows nightly that are perfectly synchronized to lights, special effects and a patriotic musical score. It contains 37 individual jets that shoot water up to 50 feet high.
• Thousands of plants and trees bring the atmosphere of the mid-Atlantic landscape in Gaylord National’s indoor and outdoor gardens. The historically themed garden palette features a colonial garden, a tree-lined river walk promenade, an 18,000 square-foot green roof and a great lawn dotted with some 1,200 oak, cherry (no chopping, please) and chestnut trees, and more than 40,000 vibrant flowers.
• And to keep all that running and looking good, the hotel and resort employs 2,000 people.