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CNN Live Today

A Virtual Tour of the Executive Mansion

Aired November 13, 2002 - 10:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, if you would like a personal tour of the White House, and I mean personal, no need to go any further than your own computer. Our Daniel Sieberg has details of a new virtual tour of the Executive Mansion with a pretty special tour guide, as well. Daniel, good morning.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, good morning, Daryn. You know it's to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the West Wing and of course people have not had a chance to tour the White House since September 11. It's only allowed for certain special groups like youth and school groups. But now, they can visit cyberspace and go to their own computer and actually get this special guided tour of the White House and elements of the West Wing.

And we've got an example here; we're just going to show you the web page at first, this is whitehouse.gov -- important to point out not whitehouse.com, but whitehouse.gov -- if you type in whitehouse.gov/life, you will pull up this main page here and see all the different video streams you can pull up and the information in different links.

And we're going to pull up the first one here. This is, actually, President George W. Bush giving a tour of the Oval Office and we're going to let him give us a bit of a virtual tour here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... realize it's a high honor to be the president of this great country and the Oval Office reminds me of that. Reminds me of that because of its beauty. It reminds me of that because of all the people who have come before me. And, first thing I see every morning when I come in is the sun shining through the windows...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIEBERG: Daryn, he goes on to talk about the windows there. He also talks about the rug that's on the floor of the Oval Office. He points out that the design is unique to every president who serves, and he says this one was actually designed by First Lady Laura Bush -- it has the presidential seal in the middle of it. He also talks about the desk there, the HMS resolute desk. And he also -- he mentions the busts that are in the Oval Office. One in particular he points out is on loan from the British government of Winston Churchill which President Bush says he is a -- an admirer of Winston Churchill.

And he goes on to continue this tour of the Oval Office; mentions a number of different things. It's actually a seven-minute long tour so it's a fairly comprehensive tour. It also points out some of the artwork on the walls in the Oval Office. Now, beyond that, there are some other different features that people might find interesting.

As you see here on the main page, you get tours from Vice- President Cheney, from Laura Bush in the diplomatic room. There are also something called iPIX technology and what this does is it allows you to get a 360-degree panoramic view of the different rooms that are in the White House.

If you see here, I'm scrolling around with my mouse just literally panning around the cabinet room and you get this 360-degree picture of the room. This iPIX technology is available on other sites on the Web as well, but they've integrated it onto this page and allow people to really get a full idea of where all the different locations are. So, quite a comprehensive site. Again, it's up live today at whitehouse.gov/life. Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: Thank you for the tour, Daniel Sieberg, and President Bush.






Aired November 13, 2002 - 10:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, if you would like a personal tour of the White House, and I mean personal, no need to go any further than your own computer. Our Daniel Sieberg has details of a new virtual tour of the Executive Mansion with a pretty special tour guide, as well. Daniel, good morning.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, good morning, Daryn. You know it's to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the West Wing and of course people have not had a chance to tour the White House since September 11. It's only allowed for certain special groups like youth and school groups. But now, they can visit cyberspace and go to their own computer and actually get this special guided tour of the White House and elements of the West Wing.

And we've got an example here; we're just going to show you the web page at first, this is whitehouse.gov -- important to point out not whitehouse.com, but whitehouse.gov -- if you type in whitehouse.gov/life, you will pull up this main page here and see all the different video streams you can pull up and the information in different links.

And we're going to pull up the first one here. This is, actually, President George W. Bush giving a tour of the Oval Office and we're going to let him give us a bit of a virtual tour here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... realize it's a high honor to be the president of this great country and the Oval Office reminds me of that. Reminds me of that because of its beauty. It reminds me of that because of all the people who have come before me. And, first thing I see every morning when I come in is the sun shining through the windows...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIEBERG: Daryn, he goes on to talk about the windows there. He also talks about the rug that's on the floor of the Oval Office. He points out that the design is unique to every president who serves, and he says this one was actually designed by First Lady Laura Bush -- it has the presidential seal in the middle of it. He also talks about the desk there, the HMS resolute desk. And he also -- he mentions the busts that are in the Oval Office. One in particular he points out is on loan from the British government of Winston Churchill which President Bush says he is a -- an admirer of Winston Churchill.

And he goes on to continue this tour of the Oval Office; mentions a number of different things. It's actually a seven-minute long tour so it's a fairly comprehensive tour. It also points out some of the artwork on the walls in the Oval Office. Now, beyond that, there are some other different features that people might find interesting.

As you see here on the main page, you get tours from Vice- President Cheney, from Laura Bush in the diplomatic room. There are also something called iPIX technology and what this does is it allows you to get a 360-degree panoramic view of the different rooms that are in the White House.

If you see here, I'm scrolling around with my mouse just literally panning around the cabinet room and you get this 360-degree picture of the room. This iPIX technology is available on other sites on the Web as well, but they've integrated it onto this page and allow people to really get a full idea of where all the different locations are. So, quite a comprehensive site. Again, it's up live today at whitehouse.gov/life. Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: Thank you for the tour, Daniel Sieberg, and President Bush.