it perfectly water tight. There is no wood in any
part of the building; and there is not perhaps
another structure in the world so entirely proof
against fire.

In the centre of the building is the great Ro-
tunda, or large circular room used as the collect-
or's office. This splendid room has a diameter
of 60 feet in the clear, and 80 feet in the recesses.
16 beautiful Corinthian columns, 30 feet high,
support the dome above it, which is richly orna-
mented with stucco, and crowned at the top with
a skylight. There are many other large and ele-
gant apartments suited to the purposes of the
building. The architect of this splendid edifice
was Mr. John Frazee. It was commenced in May,
1834, and finished in May, 1841. The cost, in-
cluding the ground, was $1,175,000; that of the
building alone, $950,000.

The ground on which the Custom House stands
was formerly the site of the old City Hall, or Fed-
eral Hall, as it was called; in which the Amer-
ican Congress held their sessions in New York,
and in the balcony of which, looking down upon
Wall Street, Washington, on the 13th of April,
1789, was inaugurated first president of the Unit-
ed States, in the presence of assembled thou-
sands of the joyful people, shouting at the close,
with one voice, “ Long live George Washington! ''

The Hall of Justice, which, with its enclosure,
including the House of Detention, occupies the
entire space between Centre, Elm, Leonard, and
Franklin Streets, 253 feet long by 200 feet wide,
is an elaborate and beautiful specimen of the
Egyptian style of architecture. It is constructed
of a light-colored granite from Hallowell, Me.
The main building, which fronts on Centre Street,
has a dystile portico of four massive Egyptian
columns. From this there is an ascent by 12
steps, between two other columns, to an area 50
feet square, having the ceiling above supported by
8 more of these massive pillars. From this area
the various apartments of the building are entered.
The Court of Sessions occupies a hall, with a gal-
lery extending back from the main building, the
roof of which is also supported by lofty Egyptian
columns. The house of detention, towards the
rear of the enclosure, is 142 long and 45 feet
wide, containing 148 cells for prisoners. This
building, from the style of architecture adopted
and the associations connected with it, has obtained
the name of the Egyptian Tombs; or, in com-
mon parlance, the Tombs. Though a handsome
structure of its kind, it has a heavy and gloomy
aspect. Its massive Theban columns, with their
gigantic palm-leaved capitals, and its cornices, or-
namented with winged globes and serpents, give
a singular and funereal effect to this sombre pile.
This edifice was completed in 1838.

The City Penitentiary, on Blackwell's Island,
about 5 miles from the City Hall, is a stone build-
ing of simple architecture, but of very imposing
effect from its large dimensions and its compara-
tively insulated position. The main or centre build-
ing is 4 stories high, surmounted by a square
tewer; and the wings, also 4 stories high, but
somewhat less elevated, extend on either side 200
feet; presenting, in the whole, a line of nearly 500
feet in extent. It is seen to fine advantage, upon
both sides, from the decks of the numerous steam-
boats passing to and from Long Island Sound.

Towards the eastern end of this island, which
is about a mile and a half in length, stand the
buildings of the New York Lunatic Asylum,
which are constructed of a dark-colored stone, in
a beautiful style of architecture, upon the plan of
4 radii from a large central edifice. The number
of patients in this asylum, in 1850, was about 500.

There is also on Blackwell's Island a work-
house, for the employment of the able-bodied in-
mates of the almshouse, comprising an extensive
and beautiful group of buildings, arranged on the
plan of radii.

One of the most splendid buildings in the city
is the edifice of the New York University, which
is beautifully situated on the E. side of Washing-
ton Square. It is constructed of white marble,
in the Gothic style of English collegiate archi-
tecture, and is 180 feet in length by 100 in width,
composed of a centre building with octangular
turrets on the 4 corners, and wings right and left,
4 stories high, flanked with square towers on the
4 corners, which rise 1 story above the body of
the building. The central building, or chapel,
triumphs over all the rest, in depth, height, and
character, and bears some resemblance to that of
King's College, Cambridge, England. It occu-
pies 55 feet of the breadth of the building, and
is 85 feet deep, including the turrets. The two
ends are gabled, and, with the sides and all
the other parts of the building, crowned with an
embattled parapet. The principal entrance is
through a deeply-recessed and richly-moulded por-
tal under the great W. window. Through this win-
dow, which is 24 feet wide and 50 feet high, filled
with stained glass,the interior of the chapel receives
the principal portion of its light. This chapel'is
truly a splendid room, in which the various details
of a Gothic interior are carried out in great per-
fection and beauty. The whole building, without
and within, is quite a masterpiece among the spe-
cimens of this kjnd of architecture in the country.

Columbia College is situated on a beautiful
square a little W. from the park, between Chapel,
Church, and Murray Streets, and has one vener-
able and handsome edifice, 200 feet long and 50
feet wide, with wings projecting at each end, in
which the families of the professors are accom-
modated. For a more particular account of this
college, and of the university, see Colleges.

Among the other literary institutions are the
New York Theological Seminary, which has a
convenient building located near the university,
and a library of 17,000 volumes; the General
Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church,
which has two handsome buildings of stone at
the corner of Ninth Avenue and Twenty-First
Street; the Rutger's Female Institute, in Madi-
son Street, which has a fine granite building,
containing a valuable library and philosophical
apparatus; and the College" of Physicians and
Surgeons, whose handsome edifice is in Crosby
Street. The New York Society Library, founded
in 1745, is the oldest literary association in New
York. It has a neat and substantial edifice on
the corner of Broadway and Leonard Street,,
which cost, with the land, $117,000. The library
at present contains 35,000 volumes, and, with the
exception of the Astor Library, is the largest and
most valuable in the state. In this building,
rooms are furnished for the annual exhibitions of
the National Academy of Design. This institu-
tion, founded in 1826, exhibits annually a large
collection of the paintings of living artists,
which is always new, as the same picture is not
allowed to appear a second time, and is patron-
ized by a great number of visitors. The Histor-