Hidden military history revealed as US Congressman sparks controversy with video

Republican Congressman Tim Moore has been reminded of the phrase "loose lips sink ships", an expression most commonly associated with the Second World War, after posting a video in which he opens a hatch to a hidden staircase in the US Capitol building. 

X user Patrick Bet-David said of the video, which has been viewed more than 1.1 million times: "This is a form of loose lips. We know there are tunnels. But don't show it. 

"The enemy is watching everything! Both foreign and domestic." 

• Heroic actions of man who swam in shark-infested waters to save sailors during WW2
• How the Attenborough of his day survived being torpedoed and helped boost morale during WW2
• Why historians are fighting to remember the role Britain's WW2 airfields played in victory

Many of the comments below the video are from people claiming hidden locations like this "don't belong on camera" and that they are security assets not tourist attractions. 

However, Mr Moore has since responded saying there are "many misconceptions about this old staircase since I posted the video". 

Despite saying in the video that small groups of people sometimes get to go down the staircase during a tour of the US Capitol, he posted again to clarify a couple of points, saying: "While it's now beneath a newer floor, this is not a tunnel. 

"It's a sealed-off exit that once led directly from the Capitol's second floor to the outside. 

"It's been closed off for decades and is public information." 

Described by Mr Moore as "one of the hidden secrets of the Capitol", the concealed staircase – located under the floor in a room once used by President Lincoln to read letters – was, the congressman believes, used by British troops in 1814 to enter the building during the War of 1812. 

The War of 1812: A brief history 

After gaining independence from Britain in 1776, the US was determined to stop London from interfering in its trade with the rest of Europe. 

The US also wanted to stop Britain from forcing its citizens into naval service and was against the country's support for Native American resistance to Western expansion. 

And so on 18 June 1812, President James Madison signed a declaration of war against Britain, marking the beginning of the War of 1812. 

A little over two years later, on 24 August 1814, British troops commanded by Major General Robert Ross and Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cockburn marched into Washington DC and set much of the city on fire. 

This was in response to the US' burning of York in Canada – which became Toronto in 1834 – on 27 April 1813. 

So in August 1814, British troops entered the US Capitol building using, some believe, the secret staircase as one of the entry points and set fire to major rooms.

The soldiers created a large bonfire using furniture covered with gunpowder paste in a location that became known as the National Statuary Hall, where 207 years later rioters would place flags showing their support for Donald Trump during the 6 January storming of the US Capitol in 2021.

The hidden staircase is described by Mr Moore as being "just off of what's called Statuary Hall, which at one time was the actual House Chamber", so its location suggests British troops might have used it as a point of entry. 

The British storming of Washington DC is the only time since the American Revolution that a foreign army has captured and occupied the nation's capital.

However, as the US Capitol building was in the process of being built using fireproof building materials, it was not destroyed. 

Twenty-six hours later, a heavy rainstorm put out the fires and the British returned to their ships.