In the beginning, there were 13 States. There are 13 stripes on eagles chest on a dollar bill. Those stripes represent the 13 states. Eagle itself represents 3 branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. Head of Eagle represents The President executive branch, the top of the shield, called the Chief, represents the Congress and the eagle’s tail feathers symbolize the Judiciary. You will notice that there are nine feathers, one for each Justice of the Supreme Court.