GEOGRAPHY, TRAVEL, ARCHITECTURE 



579 



The building of the Land Office, formerly 

 occupied by the Post-office Department, and 

 costing $1,700.000, is of white marble, in the 

 Italian or modified Corinthian style, and is 300 

 feet long by 204 feet wide. It is three stories 

 high, and on the Eighth Street side has sculp- 

 tures illustrating the telegraph and railroad. 



Pension building is constructed in the 



sance style. It borders on Judiciary 



Square, covers 80,000 square feet, is seventy-five 



-h. and 400 feet long by 200 feet wide. 



On the exterior and on a level with the second 



ia a notable band of sculpture in terra- 



ihroe feet in height, and 1,200 feet in 



It represents an army in campaign, 



supported by sailors and boats of the navy. 



Smithsonian Institution is a magnificent 

 structure, erected of red sandstone in the Ro- 

 manesque style. It is 477 feet long by 150 feet 

 wide, and has nine towers from seventy-five to 

 t in height. It was established by James 

 Smithson. The remaining noteworthy build- 

 dude the Bureau of Education, Depart- 

 >f Agriculture, -Army Medical Museum 

 brary, building of the Commission of Fish 

 and Fisheries, the United States Naval Observa- 

 Kxecutive Mansion or "White House," 

 a National Soldiers' Home, etc. The buildings 

 of note not belonging to the government include 

 the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Masonic Tem- 

 i.l lellows' Hall, "Evening Star" build- 

 ing, the "Baltimore Sun" building, Washing- 

 larket, the court house, New Willard, 

 Raleigh, Shoreham, Arlington, and Gordon ho- 

 tels, and the Cosmos, Army and Navy, Wash- 

 ington, and Metropolitan clubs. 



Monuments. Tnese include the Washington 



Monument, the Naval Monument, in honor of 



the officers, sailors and marines who were killed 



in the Civil War, the Lafayette Monument, with 



statues of Lafayette, Rochambeau, D'Estaing, De 



Grasse, and Duportail, statues of Washington, 



Franklin. Webster, two of Lincoln, General 



Kawlins, Admiral Farragut, Martin Luther, 



Admiral Dunont, President Garfield, and Chief- 



>hal; and equestrian statues of Gen- 



; . infield Scott. Nathaniel Greene, George 



II. Thomas W. S. Hancock, John B. McPherson, 



i drew Jackson, 



. The city has 125 buildings used 

 for -ehnol purposes. The white and negro pupils 

 viilnl with separate schools. The in-ti- 

 tigher education are the George Wash- 

 ington University, Howard University, Gal- 

 laudet College, Georgetown University, the Cath- 

 "f America. Cmizaga College, 

 1 niversity, National I'niversity Law 

 ' 'licnl School-. The centennial of Wash- 

 ington was fitly celebrated Deceml 

 Washington Monument, a magnifi- 

 onument erected by the American people, 

 in Junior of < ;<-orge Washington. It stands in 

 the Mall, a public park on the banks of the Poto- 

 mac and Tiber Creek, Washington, D. < 



stone was laid by President Polk, July 4, 



1848, and December 6, 1884, the cap stone wan 



ion. The foundations are 126} feet 



and 36 feet 8 inches deep. The base of 



nmnent is 55 feet 1} inches square, and 



the walls 15 feet J inch thick. At the 500 foot 



mark, where the pyramidal top begins, the shaft 

 is 34 feet 5$ inches square and the walls are 18 

 inches thick. The monument is made of blocks 

 of marble two feet thick, and it is said there are 

 over 18,000 of them. The height above the 

 ground is 555 feet. The pyramidal top termi- 

 nates in an aluminum tip, which is 9 inches high 

 and weighs 100 ounces. The mean pressure of 

 the monument is five tons per sauare foot, and 

 the total weight, foundation ana all, is nearly 

 81,000 tons. The door at the base, facing the 

 capitol, is 8 feet wide and 16 feet high, and enters 

 a room 25 feet square. An immense iron frame- 

 work supports the machinery of the elevator, 

 which is hoisted with steel wire ropes 2 inches 

 thick. At one side begins the stairs, of which 

 there are 50 flights, containing 18 steps each. 

 Five hundred and twenty feet from the base 

 there are 8 windows, 18 x 24 inches, two on each 

 face. The area at the base of the pyramidal top 

 is 1,187^ feet, space enough for a six-room house, 

 each room to be 12 x 16 feet. The Washington 

 Monument is the highest monument in the 

 world; total cost, $1,500,000. 



Wellington, a city and capital of New 

 Zealand; on Port Nicholson, an islet of Cook's 

 Strait; on the southwest extremity of the 

 provincial district of Wellington, North Island. 

 Its harbor is six miles long and five wide. The 

 provincial district of Wellington has an area of 

 11,003 square miles. It has an equable and 

 healthy climate, but is subject to earthquake 

 shocks. It is intersected by several mountain 

 ranges, but there are many fine agricultural and 

 pastoral districts. Gold was found in 1881. 

 Population, 63,807. 



Westminster Abbey, the coronation 

 church of the sovereigns of England, and one of 

 the chief ornaments of London. It is a magnifi- 

 cent Gothic pile, situated near the Thames, and 

 adjoining the Houses of Parliament. In 1065 

 a church was built here in the Norman style by 

 Edward the Confessor. Part of this structure 

 still remains in the pyx house and the south 

 side of the cloisters; out the main building, as 

 it now stands, was begun in 1220 by Henry III., 

 and was practically completed by Eel ward I. 

 Various additions, however, were made, down 

 to the time of Henry VII., who built the chapel 

 which bears his name. 



The extreme length of the church, including 

 Henry VII.'s chapel, is 531 feet; breadth of 

 transepts, 203 feet; height of roof, 102 feet; 

 height of tower, 225 feet. The eon mat i 

 mony takes place in tlie choir, when* fi- 

 liation stone brought by Ed wan I I. from Scot- 

 land is situate.! beside the coronation chair- of 

 1 nuhsh sovereigns. ^ye8tIninste^ Abbey 

 is distinguished as the burial place of a large 

 number of English kin::* from IMward the 

 Confessor to George II.: the north transept is 

 d chiefly by monuments to warriors and 

 statesmen; wlnle in the south tr.-msept is situ- 

 ated the "Poet's Comer," the burial and memo 

 rial place of m -land's great writers 



from < .I>hn Hn 



\N ..xtmillsl.T Mall, the hall of the old 



palace of Westminster, was erected by 1: 



inundation* of a structure 

 built l.y \\ ilham Kufus. It has a fine porch, 



