Chapter XXXVII: Part 37

And at a later date, he adds: “Although I have walked many hours, and I presume ten miles in this immense structure, I seem only to have begun to see it. In despair of my ability to convey any adequate idea of it, I am almost disposed to pass it in silence, but this would disappoint those for whom I write. Pictures and descriptions of the building had reached America before I left home, and it is known that its front extends more than one-third of a mile, besides its branches. The area which it covers is eighteen acres, and under its vaulted transept are included some large and lofty trees that were growing in the park. So many accounts of its contents, and so many views of its form, both within and without, have been since published, that a better idea of both can be obtained from numerous sources, than from anything that I can write. I shall, therefore, attempt nothing more than some general remarks, and will mention a few examples. When we were here in March, I expressed my admiration of the general design. So far as I know it is novel. Exhibitions of the productions, whether in nature or art, of particular countries, have often been made, and in some countries they are annual, as in France, England, and in the United States; but I believe it was reserved for Prince Albert to originate the design of inviting all nations to bring to one place the results of their industry and skill, and specimens of their physical resources. For obvious reasons, no place was so proper as London, the commercial metropolis of the world, and I suppose now containing a greater population, and certainly more wealth, and exerting more influence on mankind, than any other city. The invitation was a pledge of universal good-will, and it has evidently tended to produce kind feelings among the nations. Instead of new fortresses of stone and iron, instead of walls and battlements to protect this immense city from invasion, there rises in its grand domain of Hyde park, a crystal palace, the temple of arts and industry. It rose like an exhalation, a magical illusion of the senses. The frame-work of iron, although strong enough to sustain the weight and to resist the winds, is so little apparent to the eye, that the crystal palace appears a sea of glass, as in the Revelations, ‘A sea of glass like unto crystal.’ One might dream, as in the ‘Arabian Nights,’ of such a creation, ‘in the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men,’ and might find on waking that it was all an illusion, when it would vanish like the fabric of a dream, and leave not a wreck behind. But there it stands, a splendid reality, and with its widely extended transepts, wings and galleries, has proved sufficient to receive and protect the gathered riches of mankind.

“I mentioned in my passage from Boulogne, that I was in company with a large number of French people coming over to see the crystal palace. Crowds of all nations throng this palace; fifty thousand, or sixty thousand, and sometimes seventy thousand in a day. As you walk about, or thread your way through the great masses of human beings that crowd the avenues, you may hear half the languages of Europe, and some of those of the orient. I imagined that before our return from the continent the deluge of nations would have subsided, and this consideration was not without weight in inducing us to prefer a late inspection of the splendid wonder; but in this particular we have been disappointed. The numbers who daily resort to the crystal palace are undiminished: it may be that there are fewer foreigners, but since the price has been reduced to a shilling, the country people come in, parents and children, and mothers with their infants; steamboats and cars are crowded, and it seems as if the rural population of the kingdom were all rushing into London.

“As to the contents of the palace, it is impossible to enumerate them. A mere catalogue, with the most brief descriptive notices, would fill a large volume. I can only mention groups of things, with here and there a particular instance. The collection embraces the useful as well as the fine arts. All kinds of agricultural machines are here to be seen, and there are seeds, and specimens of crops, all duly arranged and labeled. The American department has been somewhat undervalued, because it was not so splendid, and was less full than the collections from some other countries, but even the Times, which has generally an unfriendly bearing in relation to our country, has commended the American department on the score of utility. Indeed, it was not reasonable to expect that a country occupied but two centuries by civilized people, should be able fully to compete with nations who have been civilized for a thousand years; and our great distance, and the difficulty and expense of transporting articles across the ocean, and of coming over to look after them, must have prevented our appearing as we do at home, in the great industrial exhibitions of New York, Philadelphia and Boston. I have seen such gatherings at Niblo’s and the Castle Garden, in New York, and in Boston, not only of useful, but of elegant things, as I should feel proud to see in the American department in the crystal palace. Two agricultural instruments are, however, spoken of as giving the palm to America above all competition. I refer to the plow and the reaping-machine of American manufacture. The plow is said to have attained the perfection of form, and the reaping-machine to be recommended by its great utility.

“Iron, as it is the material which, more than others, (wood excepted,) contributes indispensable aid to the arts of life, occupies a conspicuous place in the exhibition. Its ores and its castings, and its wrought articles, whether in a locomotive, or the hair-spring of a chronometer, whether in chain-cables or a cambric needle, are displayed in endless variety of useful and beautiful forms, and in this department England justly claims and fully proves her preëminence. Iron, lead, copper, bismuth, zinc, antimony, and silver, gold and platinum, are conspicuous here. England glories in her tin, lead and copper: in the two latter we can compete with her; our lead is inexhaustible, and our native copper of Lake Superior, is unequaled for abundance. A large mass of it has been brought over for the exhibition, weighing many thousand pounds.

“Nothing can exceed the beauty of the articles of silver, whether utensils or ornaments, which are exposed to view in the gallery of the crystal palace. The most graceful forms both of peaceful men, and of warriors, armed cap-à-pie; and of woman in the very _beau ideal_ of her loveliness, are here in profusion; and if England excels in these articles in silver, France is not behind her, both in them and in gilded furniture, and bronze, as seen in all the splendor and elegance of the show windows of the Palais Royal. The silver extracted from lead by Pattinson’s process is here seen in piles so rich, with a perfect purity of whiteness, and in scaly pyramids, a kind of flaky mound, that the observer looks on with delight, as also upon the same metal cast in ponderous ingots. Here is the gold of California, one brilliant mass weighing in value eight hundred pounds sterling, equivalent to nearly four thousand dollars. There are three masses of native Siberian, or Russian platinum, weighing respectively twenty-one, twenty-three, and twenty-five pounds, and many wrought articles of the same metal. The copper of Russia, in the form of malachite, here makes a great figure. The same material which we saw in the Vatican, and in the palace of the king of Prussia, in the form of magnificent vases, is here seen wrought into innumerable forms of beauty. There is even a large paneled door fabricated entirely of malachite. Of course many pieces are united to afford the requisite mass. There are tables, vases, urns, chairs, settees, &c., mounted with the same rich material. The gems form a conspicuous ornament of the collection. Queen Victoria has loaned her largest diamond, with several smaller ones, to be exhibited, and here also are some of the most precious of the diamonds, rubies, sapphires, topazes, emeralds, chrysoberyls, opals, and pearls of the regalia of Russia, Spain and India. The Duke of Devonshire has an emerald deposited by Mr. Tenant, nearly two inches in the diagonal diameter, and two to three inches in length; it is of surpassing beauty, being perfectly crystallized, and of the most intense and uniform grass-green color. There is no end to the _bijouterie_ of the French. A case in the gallery is composed of four pieces of plate glass, each between five and six feet long, and four to five broad. This case is entirely filled with elegant ornamental articles.

“I can not pretend to enumerate the marbles, granites, porphyries, serpentines, and other architectural materials, nor the piles of mineral coal, and anthracite, nor the perfect imitations of beautiful and useful mineral compositions, such as serpentines, verd-antique, porphyry, and verd-antique marbles, &c. The _chemical products_, too, of great beauty, are numerous. The crystallizations of carbonate and bi-carbonate of soda, of alum, of the prussiates, yellow and red, of the sulphate of iron, and the sulphate of copper, and sal-ammoniac, are splendid, and evince that the chemical arts are not behind the mechanical. Large cakes of metallic antimony are crystallized in beautiful fern-like radiations.

“France, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Germany, Prussia, Turkey, the Barbary states, Egypt, Bermuda, the East Indies, Canada, Australia, and other countries, have combined to decorate the crystal palace. Superb silks have come from the east, and pictured stuffs, shawls, carpets, &c., from Germany; the antipodes have conspired to crown the glorious spectacle; plain and useful materials, leather, hemp, ropes of manilla grass and of other fibrous vegetables, and glass and pottery in their varieties, are not omitted. To give animation to the scene, steam generated out of doors is brought in through concealed tubes and applied to machinery. Cotton-gins and paper-making machines are at work, and the palace resounds with the noise of actual and productive labor. Ship models are presented in many forms, especially ships of war, in sections longitudinal and transverse, with all their interior structure. Life-boats and life-preservers, and in harmony with them, mirrors for light-houses; but in contrast, swords, pistols, revolvers, guns, dirks and daggers, and multiform contrivances to do the work of killing the greatest number of men in the shortest time; such are man’s inconsistencies!

“But time would fail to tell of the furniture, the carriages, the musical instruments, the ceramic wares, and all the countless and indescribable throng of articles which contribute their effect in the _tout ensemble_ of this vast storehouse of the nations. The statuary arranged along the naves is a conspicuous and interesting feature. Many of the prominent and more meritorious of these marbles, have since become so familiar from the engravings in the Art Journal and other illustrated works, that it is needless at this late day to call attention to them individually. The famous Amazon of Kiss, the same which was in London, is now the most remarkable artistic object in the American crystal palace. The most interesting view is obtained from the galleries of the moving masses of human life below. It is a panorama where multitudes are passing to and fro, and soon are seen no more, fleeting as the _jets-d’eau_ which sport among them from living fountains, that curl over and descend in graceful sweeps, and seem to enliven the stately palms and other living plants and trees which grace the scene.”

In closing this extended notice of the crystal palace, we hardly need add, that after the close of the great exhibition, it was taken down and removed; and that at present, it rears its splendid form and stately transepts in a new and more beautiful situation at Sydenham, with many important additions and improvements. It now stands in the midst of a magnificent undulating park of three hundred acres, surrounded with rural delights, fountains, shaded walks and silvan temples; while within, it has been converted into a great permanent museum of arts, antiquities and science, with living groves of palms, enlivened by singing birds and sparkling fountains. For eighteen pence the London artisan can visit it, including the ride out and back upon the railway. This is being done by a private association at a cost of near four million dollars.

THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON.

Among the public buildings at Washington, the capital city of the nation, the first in architectural merit, and in point of interest, is the Capitol, which contains the halls of the national legislature, the supreme court room, &c., &c. This building (a view of which, as it will appear when the enlargement now in progress is completed, is given in the cut below) is situated on an eminence at the eastern part of the city, about seventy feet above tidewater, its main front looking toward the west. As it was before the commencement of the alterations and improvements now in progress, it consisted of a center building, with two wings, having a total length of three hundred and fifty-two feet, and a depth at the wings of one hundred and twenty-one feet. The central building contains a rotunda, ninety-six feet in diameter, and the same in hight, crowned by a magnificent dome which rises one hundred and forty-five feet from the ground. The wings, as they were, were each surmounted by a flat dome. The eastern front, which was intended for the main one, projects, including the steps, sixty-five feet, and is graced by a portico of twenty-two Corinthian columns, thirty feet in hight, forming a colonnade one hundred and sixty feet in length, presenting one of the most commanding fronts in the United States. The western front projects eighty-three feet, including the steps, and is embellished with a recessed portico of ten columns. This front, though not so imposing, in itself, as the eastern, commands the finest view anywhere to be had in Washington, overlooking all the central and western parts of the city, and all the principal public buildings. On the steps of the east front is a noble statue of Columbus, supporting a globe in his outstretched arm. In the interior of the western projection is the library of Congress, a part of which was burned in the winter of 1851-2. Before that event it contained over fifty thousand volumes. It has been rebuilt so as to be fire-proof.

On entering the rotunda, the first objects that strike the attention, are the paintings which adorn the walls. There are “The Declaration of Independence,” “The Surrender of Burgoyne,” “The Surrender of Cornwallis,” “Washington resigning his Commission,” “The Embarkation of the Pilgrims at Leyden,” “The Landing of Columbus,” “The Baptism of Pocohontas,” and “The Discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto.” Surrounding the rotunda, are a number of chambers, passages, committee-rooms, rooms for the president, members of the cabinet, &c. The senate-chamber is on the second floor of the north wing, of which it occupies about half, and is of a semicircular form, being seventy-five feet long, and forty-five high. A gallery for spectators, supported by iron or bronze pillars, surrounds the semicircle, and fronts the chair of the presiding officer, which stands in the middle of the chord of the semicircle. In the rear of the chair, and above it, is a gallery, supported by Ionic columns of the conglomerate or Potomac marble, in which sit the reporters, fronting the senators. The hall of representatives is on the second floor of the south wing, and is also semicircular, but much larger than the senate-chamber, being ninety-six feet long, and sixty high, and surrounded by twenty-four Corinthian columns of Potomac marble, with capitals of Italian marble. The galleries are similar in their arrangement to those of the senate-chamber. Over the chair of the speaker is a statue of Liberty, supported by an eagle with spread wings. In front of the chair, and immediately above the main entrance, is a figure representing History recording the events of the nation.

The enlargement of the Capitol, commenced in 1851, and now in progress, will, however, materially change and improve its appearance. It will comprehend two wings, two hundred and thirty-eight by one hundred and forty feet, which are to be surrounded on three sides by colonnades, and on the fourth side to communicate by corridors, forty-four feet long and fifty feet wide, with the main building. The whole will be seven hundred and fifty-one feet long, and will cover three and one-half acres, or more than one hundred and fifty-three thousand square feet. The architect of the new building has completed the design of a magnificent new dome for the center of the enlarged building, which is said to be a splendid conception of genius, and which is to take the place of the present dome, and thus perfect the symmetry and architectural beauty of the entire building when complete. It will be constructed entirely of cast iron, and will be on the foundation of the old dome. And if it at all meets the expectations formed of it, it will be a lasting monument of the skill and genius of the architect.

The whole cost of the building as it now stands, before the extension, was some two million dollars; but the improvement will cost several millions more. The original structure was commenced in 1793, and had not been completed when it was burned, by an act of vandalism, in 1814; and was not entirely finished till 1828. The grounds around the Capitol, embracing some thirty acres, and forming an oblong on three sides, and a semicircle on the west, are handsomely laid out, and planted with trees and shrubbery, presenting, during the spring and summer, a scene of great beauty. About the center of the grounds, on the eastern front, is a colossal statue of Washington, by Greenough. The material of the Capitol is a porous stone of a light yellow color, painted white. The enlargement is to be of marble.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE.

South-west from the Capitol, and midway between it and the president’s house, on a gently rising ground, in the midst of a new park which has recently been laid out, stands the Smithsonian Institute, one of the noblest institutions and finest structures in Washington, a view of which is given in the cut beyond.

This edifice is four hundred and fifty feet long, by one hundred and forty wide, and is built of red sand-stone, in the Romanesque or Norman style, embellished by nine towers, from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty feet high, and of different forms. In the building is a lecture-room, large enough to seat some two thousand persons; a museum, for objects of natural history, some two hundred feet long; one of the best supplied laboratories in the United States; a gallery for paintings and statuary; a library-room, capable of containing one hundred thousand volumes; and various other smaller apartments connected with the designs of the building. The institution was endowed by James Smithson, an Englishman, who left his whole fortune, some five hundred thousand dollars, “to found, at Washington, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” The fund, which is in the keeping of the United States government, yields an income of more than thirty thousand dollars per year; and this increase is divided into two parts, one of which is to be devoted to the increase and diffusion of knowledge by means of original research and publications, and the other to the gradual formation of a library, a gallery of art, museum, &c.

THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT.

On the proposed new park, and between the Smithsonian Institute and the president’s house, has been commenced a colossal monument to the memory of Washington, to be erected by the voluntary contributions of the people. A view of it, as it will appear when completed, is given in the cut.

The plan contemplates, as a base, a circular temple, two hundred and fifty feet in diameter, and one hundred feet high, from the center of which is to rise a shaft, seventy feet square, to the hight of six hundred feet above the ground, and to be cased in marble. The base is intended to be the Westminster Abbey of the United States, to contain the statues of the revolutionary worthies, and in the center, (if his family approve,) are to be placed the remains of Washington. The temple, at the base, will be entirely surrounded by a colonnade of thirty pillars, in the Doric style, forty-five feet high by twelve in diameter, surmounted by an entablature of twenty feet, which, in turn, is to be surmounted by a balustrade of fifteen feet in hight. Each state in the union is invited to furnish a block of native stone or other material, with an inscription, which will be inserted in the interior, where the block may be seen and the inscription read in coming ages. A triumphal car, with a statue of Washington, is to stand over the grand entrance, as seen in the engraving. The column, at present, has reached the hight of less than two hundred feet; but if completed according to the original plan, it will form the most magnificent monument ever erected. It is said that there is not a column, either ancient or modern, in Europe, as high as the Bunker-hill monument. And yet, such are the gigantic proportions of the Washington monument, that Bunker-hill monument could be placed inside of it without much impeding the operations of the workmen; and when it is finished, any two of the monuments of Europe could be stowed away within its walls without being noticed from the exterior. The design has been severely criticised; and the great hight of the column, receding so suddenly from so wide a base, has been strongly objected to. But the plan was deliberately adopted after much consideration, and when the work is finished, it will doubtless be approved by the great mass of beholders. Certainly it will attract the gaze of thousands as a monument not merely to a _man_, but to _principles_ which should be dear to every American. The endowments of the great man whom it commemorates, were peculiarly adapted to the exigency which called them into action. He was brave, but cautious; earnest, yet calm; resolved, yet guarded against rash adventure; a patriot, in whose heart the love of country predominated; a statesman, in whose conduct every public virtue was exemplified; a citizen, whose intercourse with his fellow-men was without reproach. Placed in a position at once responsible and perilous, he felt and was ever ready to acknowledge the overruling providence of God, by whose blessing alone he could succeed. It was not one great quality which formed the character of Washington, but a rare union of many great qualities. These, with unfeigned devotion, he laid on the altar of his country, and for the promotion of her interests he was ready to sacrifice his personal comfort and his life. Wonderfully was he sustained in his self-denying and eventful career, and remarkable was the success which accompanied his efforts. The most formidable obstacles were surmounted, the most powerful opposition subdued; his country was liberated; the battle of free institutions was fought and won; and he, superior to the impulses of mere personal ambition, nevertheless achieved a fame which has no parallel in the world’s history. If he was “first in war,” he was “first too in peace,” and he still remains “first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Such a name should never be forgotten; such an example should never lose its influence.

THE COLUMN OF VENDOME, PARIS.

The _Place de Vendome_, formed upon the site of a hotel that belonged to the Duke de Vendome, was begun by Louis XIV., who, in 1685, purchased and leveled the hotel, intending to erect, round a public place, edifices for the royal library, the mint, the extraordinary embassadors, &c. This project, however, was abandoned, and the property ceded to the city of Paris, with a stipulation to erect a _place_ upon the site. Mansard, who furnished the first plans, was charged with the second; and the buildings, as they now stand, were begun in 1699, and finished by the financier Law. The form of the place is a symmetrical octagon, the larger sides of which measure respectively, four hundred and twenty and four hundred and fifty feet. Two wide streets, forming the only entrances to it, the _Rue de la Paix_ and the _Rue de Castiglione_, equisect its northern and southern sides. The buildings are uniform, consisting of a rustic basement surmounted by upper stories, ornamented with Corinthian pilasters, and high roofs pierced with lucarne windows. The middle of each side is graced with a pediment supported by Corinthian columns. This place was first called the _Place des Conquêtes_, then the _Place Louis le Grand_, and afterward the _Place Vendome_. In the middle formerly stood a colossal equestrian statue of Louis XIV., in bronze, erected in 1669, but demolished the tenth of August, 1792; the bronze figures that ornamented its base were saved, and are still to be seen in the _Musée de la Sculpture Moderne_. The mutilated pedestal remained till 1806, when it was replaced by the triumphal pillar, erected by Napoleon, to commemorate the success of his arms in the German campaign of 1805. This column is an imitation of the pillar of Trajan at Rome, of which it preserves the proportions on a scale larger by one-twelfth. Its total elevation is one hundred and thirty-five feet, and the diameter of the shaft is twelve feet. The pedestal is twenty-one feet in hight, and from seventeen to twenty in breadth. The pedestal and shaft are of stone, covered with bass-reliefs, representing victories of the French army, in bronze, made from twelve hundred pieces of brass cannon taken from the Russians and Austrians. The metal employed in this monument weighs about three hundred and sixty thousand pounds. The bass-reliefs of the pedestal represent the uniforms, armor and weapons of the conquered troops. Above the pedestal are garlands of oak, supported at the four angles by eagles, each weighing five hundred pounds. The door, of massive bronze, is decorated with crowns of oak, surmounted by an eagle of the highest finish; above is a bass-relief, representing two figures of Fame, supporting a tablet, with an inscription in honor of Napoleon, and commemorating the victories which the column was erected to celebrate. The bass-reliefs of the shaft pursue a spiral direction to the capital, and display, in chronological order, the principal actions, from the departure of the troops from Boulogne to the battle of Austerlitz. The figures are three feet high; their number is said to be two thousand, and the length of the scroll eight hundred and forty feet; a spiral thread divides the lines, and bears inscriptions of the actions they represent. The figure of Napoleon on the top of the column, is eleven feet high. The statue of Napoleon, in imperial robes, was melted down in 1814, to form a part of the equestrian statue of Henry IV., but was replaced by Louis Philippe, May first, 1832, clad in military costume, shrouded by crape. From the summit of the monument, which is reached by a spiral staircase, there is a splendid view of the capital, and admission is obtained through one of Napoleon’s veterans, who keeps the door.

THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT.

This celebrated monument, a view of which is given in the cut on the next page, is in the town of Charlestown, Mass., on the hill where the first battle was fought between the provincial and British troops in the war of the revolution. The hill was originally called Breed’s hill, Bunker hill being to the north of it, at the entrance of the peninsula on which Charlestown is situated. On this hight a detachment of one thousand men were directed to intrench themselves, on the night of the sixteenth of June, 1775. By some mistake, they proceeded to Breed’s hill, which is nearer Boston, and which has since been called Bunker hill, as the name is associated with the battle. The men had worked with such secrecy, that by the dawn of day they had, unperceived by the enemy, thrown up a redoubt eight rods square. The incessant fire from the shipping and a battery on Copp’s hill, in Boston, did not prevent the Americans from completing by midday, with great labor and fatigue, a slight breastwork from the redoubt to the bottom of the hill on the east side. Between twelve and one o’clock, the British, to the number of three thousand men, with a portion of artillery, under Generals Howe and Pigot, landed in Charlestown, and having formed their men in two lines, advanced slowly to the attack, frequently halting to allow their artillery time to fire. The Americans, in their intrenchments, coolly waited their approach. It is said that General Putnam, who was a leader, though Colonel Prescott had the chief command, told the men that they had not a charge of powder to waste, and exhorted them not to fire upon the enemy till they could see the whites of their eyes. They were suffered to approach to within ten or twelve rods, when these practiced American marksmen fired with such deadly aim as to throw the British ranks into confusion, and cause them to retreat precipitately to the bottom of the hill. By the efforts of their officers they were formed a second time and advanced to the attack. The Americans waited till they were within five or six rods, when they again opened a destructive fire, which brought them to a stand and threw them into confusion. At this critical moment General Clinton arrived from Boston, and succeeded in rallying his men, and in bringing them to a charge, while some cannon were brought to a station that enabled them to rake the breastwork from end to end. The works were now attacked with fixed bayonets, and as the Americans were not furnished with them, and they found their ammunition beginning to fail, they were obliged to retreat over Charlestown neck. The British were victorious; but it was a dearly bought victory. Their loss, by the acknowledgment of General Gage, was ten hundred and fifty-four killed and wounded; while the engagement was particularly fatal to the officers, as they were singled out by the American marksmen. Nineteen commissioned officers were killed, and seventy wounded. Of the men, two hundred and twenty-six were killed, and eight hundred and twenty-eight wounded; while of the Americans, who had only fifteen hundred men engaged, only one hundred and forty-five were killed, and three hundred and four wounded and missing.

On the site of this celebrated battle, sixty-two feet above the level of the harbor, on ground purchased for the purpose, the Bunker hill monument, a splendid obelisk, has been erected. The corner-stone was first laid by La Fayette, on the fiftieth anniversary of the battle, in the presence of an immense concourse of citizens, the seventeenth of June, 1825, when an address was delivered by Daniel Webster. This foundation, however, having been found insufficient, the corner-stone of the present structure was laid, in a more substantial manner, in March, 1827; and the monument was completed the twenty-third of July, 1842. The obelisk is thirty feet square at the base, and sixteen and one-third feet at the top; and is substantially built of hewn Quincy granite. The hight from the base to the top of the apex, is two hundred and twenty-one feet; and the cost of the work was about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The interior is circular, having a diameter of ten feet and seven inches at the bottom, and of six feet and four inches at the top, and is ascended by two hundred and ninety-four steps. The top is an elliptical chamber, about eighteen feet high, with four windows, the view from which is truly magnificent, embracing Boston, and its harbor and environs, together with the mountain scenery in the distance, and the adjacent towns nearer at hand. The monument consists of ninety courses of hewn stone, eighty-four above the base, and six below it. There are a number of windows in the sides, closed with iron shutters, beside numerous apertures. The completion of the monument in 1842, was hailed by the firing of cannon, and other testimonials of rejoicing. The monument itself, being the most elevated object in the vicinity, will serve as a landmark to seamen, and will long stand in commemoration of the brave men who here fought, and many of whom fell, in defense of the rights of their country, nobly contributing to the independence of the United States.

THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE.

This triumphal arch, says a late tourist, “is one of the most wonderful conceptions of that wonderful man, Napoleon. It was begun by him, but finished by his successors. This stupendous fabric strikes one with astonishment; and after we had opportunity to compare it with the triumphal arches of the Roman emperors, we were still more impressed with its grandeur. Dimensions are indispensable, if we would produce in others any correct conceptions of structures or space; but they fail to impress the mind as does the actual vision, and this is eminently the fact with this elaborate work. Napoleon decreed its erection in 1806, after his successful campaigns in Prussia and Germany. The plan of the triumphal arch was furnished in 1809. The foundations were sunk twenty-five feet below the surface, and it was only above ground in 1811. In 1814, the works were suspended, and remained neglected until 1823. After various interruptions, the pile was finished by Louis Philippe in 1836, thirty years from the decree which gave birth to it, and from the laying of the first stone. The cost was ten million, four hundred and twenty thousand francs, or over two million dollars. The monument consists of a vast central arch, ninety feet in hight by forty-five in width, over which rises a bold entablature, frieze and cornice. There is also a transversal arch, fifty-seven feet high and twenty-five feet wide. The total hight of the structure is a hundred and fifty-two feet, and its breadth and depth are a hundred and thirty-seven and sixty-eight feet respectively. These dimensions are more than realized by actual inspection. The panels, frieze, and pediment of this structure, are covered by figures in bold relief, eighteen feet in hight, three times the size of life, and those above are half of this size. All of them illustrate the history of France, and they are chiefly warlike. One group may be mentioned as an example. Victory is crowning Napoleon with a laurel wreath; History is writing the narrative of his deeds, and Fame, soaring above, is proclaiming them with her trumpet.

“The observer should ascend the monument, when he will realize more than ever its great hight and magnitude, and its massy materials. An aged woman at the door furnished us with a lantern for our ascent through dark passages. The stairs are easy, although narrow, and we mounted, without difficulty, up the two hundred and sixty-one steps. The floor which covers the arches, is composed of very large stones, hewn into perfect symmetry. Notwithstanding the mountain weight of this structure, not the slightest crack in the massy stones, or opening in the joints, can be perceived, in any part of the pile. The top affords a secure and convenient place for observation, and from this place the observer enjoys a glorious view of Paris and its environs. Away into the country stretches interminably, as far as the eye can discern, a beautiful road, almost of the same ample width as that of the broad avenue, at the head of which the triumphal arch stands. Looking from the arch to the north, the avenue leads through and along the Elysian Fields, the Place de la Concorde, the gardens and palace of the Tuilleries, the Carrousel and palace of the Louvre, all of which are in one continuous line of two or three miles. On our right, looking east, are the dome of the Invalides, the extensive Champs de Mars, and the Ecole Militaire near that field. The triumphal arch of Napoleon in the Carrousel, the cathedral of Notre Dame, and the commemorative column of July, 1830, erected on the site of the ancient Bastile, are seen on the north-east. Alas! how much blood has this arch of triumph cost. The places of ninety-six victories are given on the monument, with the names of the generals by whom they were won, the latter making an aggregate of three hundred and eighty-four.”

THE COOPER INSTITUTE.

This is a structure, not yet complete, but to be of huge proportions, the foundations of which are imbedded deep in the earth, there resting on masses of stone, from which, as they rise from the ground, they ascend in columns and arches of iron. It is situated near the upper part of Broadway, in the city of New York, not far from the Astor library, the Bible house, and the fine building of the Mercantile Library Association. Like the Bible house it covers a whole block, and extends on every side as far as the streets which surround will allow. The space inclosed is nearly three-quarters of an acre. The ground is excavated to the depth of twenty-five feet, to lay the broadest foundations, and also to furnish space below the level of the street for a large hall, which may be used for public assemblies. Here, under one corner, is to be a complete apparatus for the manufacture of gas, and also for warming and ventilating the whole building. From the pavement the edifice rises to six stories, reaching a hight nine feet above the Bible house. The lower story, which, from its long row of iron arches, presents a noble appearance, is intended for stores, the rent of which will be a perpetual endowment for the support of the institution. The second story is to be fitted up for offices, which will also be a source of revenue. With the third story, commences the portion of the edifice devoted strictly to scientific purposes. Here, occupying the body of the building, is a hall, which will hold four thousand people, and will probably be found the best place for lectures in the city, being much more spacious and elegant than the Tabernacle. It will not be quite so large as the Academy of Music, which is out of all proportion with ordinary speaking and hearing; but it will hold as large an audience as can well get within the sound of one man’s voice. On this floor, a room of ample dimensions is set apart for a school of design for ladies. This is an admirable feature in the plan. It will furnish hundreds of young women, who have a taste for drawing, with facilities for becoming perfect in that accomplishment, and also with a means of support for such as wish to teach. Another spacious apartment is devoted to Egyptian antiquities. The fine collection brought to this country by Dr. Abbott has been secured, and will form one of the attractions of the Cooper Institute. Here will be placed the famous bulls, and all the wonders brought from the land of the Nile. Other divisions of the building will contain collections of natural history, of beasts, birds and reptiles. Thus will be formed a grand museum, bringing together what is rare and curious from the earth, air and sea. Here, too, the mineralogist and the botanist will find a place for their collections, and the chemist be furnished with his laboratory. Connected with these departments, there will be professors and courses of lectures. The design of the benevolent founder is to furnish to young men, free of expense, an education in any branch of science or art. In many of its features, this institution is modeled after the Polytechnic school in Paris. To every young man who has a thirst for science, is here afforded the means of satisfying it. The fountains of knowledge will be open to him, and he may drink freely. We doubt not, many will avail themselves of this opportunity. Sir Humphrey Davy once said, the greatest discovery he ever made was the discovery of the poor Irish boy, Michael Faraday, now the world-renowned professor of London. May not such a one yet be picked up in the streets of New York, who will here find open to him a path to science and to fame. Many a country lad, whose desire for knowledge can not be satisfied in a district school, will here find an ampler field of study. In future years, the dwellers in that part of the city will often see, at midnight, the lights gleaming in those high windows, where ardent youth pore over books, exploring that world of science then, for the first time, opened to their gaze. In another year, _i. e._, by 1856, we hope to see it in full operation. A structure so immense, of course, can advance but slowly. It has been delayed, also, for want of stone, and in order to have made, specially for this building, iron girders, which take the place of wood, and which give greater strength and security. It is guarded against fire, in every possible way, and built in the firmest manner; and when completed, it will be a huge mass of rock and iron. It is built to last for ages, and will stand as a monument to the liberality of a private individual, who, having, on this very spot, begun life himself as a poor boy, and risen, by a long course of industry, to be one of the merchant princes of the land, desired to found an institution for the benefit of the young men of his native city.

VERGNAIS’S IMPROVED BRIDGE.

Various plans have from time to time been formed, for giving strength and security to bridges; the history of which, from the time when streams were first crossed by rude logs or trees thrown over them, up to the latest inventions, would be full of interest. One of the latest improvements in this department, designed and invented by an ingenious French engineer, M. Vergnais, is presented in the preceding cut. It was originally intended to be thrown across the river Seine, at Paris. Some years ago, a wire suspension bridge at Angiers gave way, while a body of troops was crossing, precipitating an entire regiment into the water, with a terrible loss of life. Since that dreadful catastrophe there has always been a feeling of aversion in France, toward the erection of suspension bridges. The ingenious improvement here presented is designed to relieve all possible danger of breakage, and yet allow of the construction of a bridge of gigantic proportions, without in the least impeding navigation. In the ordinary suspension bridge, the main cables sustain the entire weight, and should the connection between the bridge and the cables give way, or either of the cables break, a most melancholy end awaits all who have happened to be trusting their lives to its security at the moment. In the application of Vergnais’s improvement, the utmost security is afforded. A monster arch of iron is thrown across from shore to shore. This arch is composed of such strong materials as not to require great bulk, so that it presents an aerial appearance. The flooring of the bridge is suspended from the arch by innumerable pendants of iron, so that the weight of a body, in crossing the bridge, is brought to bear gradually upon the structure, and when it reaches the center, where common bridges are the weakest, under this invention it reaches the strongest part, for it is directly beneath the arch. Besides, should any of the pendants give way, the entire bridge does not yield, for it is impossible for all the pendants to break at once. This plan is certainly a new and novel one, so far as suspension bridges are concerned. We hope that the inventor will be encouraged to erect them in this country. Railroad companies will find them to be in every way advantageous to their interest, since the cars may run across them at the highest speed, with perfect security.

RAILROAD BRIDGE AT PORTAGE, NEW YORK.

A group of natural and artificial wonders more varied and magnificent than at Portage, N. Y., is not to be found in this land of sublime scenery and rapid improvement. It is destined to be a Mecca of travel, only to be classed with the White mountains, Niagara and the Mammoth cave. No descriptive language will appear exaggerated to one who visits the scene, or studies the measurements and details now presented. These do not tell half the story; a complete account would require a guide-book of pen-and-pencil sketches. The small village of Portage lies on the Genessee river, at a point where it enters a stupendous gorge, which continues seventeen miles, in a north-east direction, to Mount Morris. Here it flows into the famous Genessee valley, which extends from Dansville to Rochester, and is a level tract of rich farms and shaded meadows, that are said to resemble English park scenery more than anything in our country. The river enters the lake a few miles below the Rochester falls, thirty miles north of Mount Morris. To begin back, just below Portage village is a noble aqueduct of the Genessee canal: this is built of hewn limestone, and is much like the high bridge at Harlem, in size and appearance. Passing this and advancing into the river-gulf, with the Genessee on one hand, the canal on the other, and two hundred and fifty feet of wooded declivity inclosing both, a short walk brings you suddenly to the new bridge of the Buffalo and New York city railroad. The first and last look at this bridge must be one of dumb amazement. It is the crystal palace of all bridges. How any mortal ever conceived, or having conceived ever dared to attempt carrying it into execution, passes our comprehension. Resting on six heavy stone basements in the water, and as many more on the land, it rises to the immense hight, for a bridge, of two hundred and thirty-four feet, and is eight hundred feet long, lifting its immense net-work of timber, as if a whole village of house-frames and rectangular streets were raised up and set perpendicularly on edge. The first fall of the river, a sidelong, broken descent of sixty feet, is a few steps below the structure, and visible from its top, long before reaching which the ascending mist is dissipated. One and a half million feet of timber, being the product of two hundred acres of land, together with thirty tuns of iron spikes, were required for this climax of modern engineering. The cost is estimated at one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Before the work had reached its completion, the railroad passengers were taken in carriages two miles around from one end of the bridge to the other, a very comfortable hotel having been erected at the eastern extremity. Below the monster bridge and its waterfall, the river chasm widens into a deep basin of hills, with a pond in the center, and the second fall, a descent of eighty feet, at the lower extremity. This grand natural temple of cliffs, has thus at each end an organ with a shining range of silver pipes; on the left side are several galleries in the shape of canal aqueducts of wood, built to avoid the incessant slides of quicksand; and, at the upper entrance, the six-story bridge furnishes fifty rostrums for as many orators. Connected with the lower falls is a singular semicircular chasm, and, at its base, a cave, worn by water, which, as a matter of course, has been afflicted with a Satanic name: it is of difficult access. Here begin the imposing precipices of three hundred feet in hight, forming, at this point, a mighty amphitheater, around the eastern brink of which winds the canal, protected by a stone parapet. A gigantic tunnel was first constructed, and still remains in part; but the rock proved so insecure, that the overhanging roof was thrown off, at great expense, into the river, and the bed of the canal laid in cement. Nearly the whole array of these wonders could be brought into one view from a high point on the western bank, where the artist Cole, when this scenery was in its pristine wildness, once took a sketch for a very large autumnal picture, which is now in the possession of Hon. W. H. Seward. Some distance below the places now described, is a third fall, very grotesque in its features, and made remarkable by a tall natural tower, left by the wearing of the river and surmounted by a crown of foliage.

THE BRITANNIA TUBULAR BRIDGE.

This wonder of modern engineering, a view of which is given in the cut, forms part of the railroad from Chester to Holyhead, and is thrown over the Menai strait which separates Caernarvon, in Wales, from the island of Anglesey. This strait appears to the eye as a beautiful river, half a mile wide, through which the tide, which here rises twenty and twenty-five feet, rushes with great rapidity and force. The tubular bridge over it is one hundred feet above high-water level, and formed of long, hollow, rectangular tubes, one for up, and the other for down trains, composed of wrought-iron boiler-plates riveted together, and resting on huge and massive towers of masonry. Of these tubes or galleries, eight in number, four for each line, the four shortest are each two hundred and thirty feet, and the four longest each four hundred and seventy-two feet in length. The middle and largest pier or tower, is sixty-two feet by fifty-two at the base, and rises majestically to a hight of two hundred and thirty feet. The workmen engaged upon this bridge, with their wives and families, were equal in number to the population of a moderately sized town, and had the usual provisions for large communities, of a clergyman, schoolmaster, surgeon, _etc._ The entire cost of the stupendous structure, was about three million, five hundred thousand dollars. The number of rivets used in fastening the tubes of this bridge was over two million; and the entire length of it is eighteen hundred and thirty-four feet. Silliman says of this immense and ingenious structure, that it “is wonderful. To construct,” he adds, “a vast tube of iron strong enough to admit of railroad trains passing safely through it; to build it in separate pieces down on the common level; to float them to the site, and there raise them to their elevation of one hundred feet, and place them on firm pillars of masonry as supports, and then to unite them into one continued tube, as part of the grand railroad connection between London and Holyhead and Ireland, is an achievement which must forever place the name of Robert Stevenson above all praise.” To show the immense strength of this bridge, he goes on to say, “An enormous weight of between three and four hundred thousand pounds, caused a depression of the level only three inches. The ordinary pressure of the railroad trains produces a depression of one-eighth of an inch, or even less, discernible only by instruments. A pressure of more than six hundred thousand pounds produced a deflection of less than an inch and a half. As works of art, this bridge, and the one next to be mentioned, are triumphs of mechanical skill and science, and they not only establish the connection which has been named between Wales, Anglesey and Ireland, but they afford the prospect of a still more important connection from Galway, in Ireland, to Nova Scotia, by steamers, thus bringing Europe and America within a week of each other. The most massy stone pier, the Britannia, was erected upon a firm rock which is in the middle of the river. The term tube, as here applied to the body of the bridge, may convey an erroneous idea; for instead of being round, it is square. It is an immense iron corridor, or parallelopiped, closed in, forming a horizontal iron gallery, or passage, in which the rails are laid. It is thirty feet high in the middle, and twenty-two feet toward the ends.