304 BULLETIN OF THE NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The red sandstone from Haverstraw was used formerly 

 in the city. It has disappeared from the market. 



A difficulty in the way of the easy introduction, and the 

 more general employment of the harder sandstones, as the 

 Potsdam and Oxford blue sandstone, is the greater expense 

 of dressing them. The softer Warsaw and Portage stones 

 have found a more ready market for facings,*mainly. 



The Hudson river blue-stone, included here under sand- 

 stones, from the Hudson and Delaware valleys, is an excep- " 

 tion to the general statements about New York sandstones 

 above ; and its use in constructive work continues large, 

 although the greater volume of that stone is laid in street 

 sidewalks and curbing. For lintels, sills, caps, water-tables, 

 platforms and steps the blue-stone has no superior, for tensile 

 strength and durability, and there is a steady demand for it. 



Limestone 



Limestones from New York state quarries have been em- 

 ployed for heavy masonry, as, for example, in the anchor- 

 ages and approaches of the New York and Brooklyn bridge, 

 where the blue limestones of Lake Champlain and some of 

 the Rondout quarries were used. The Sandy Hill quarries 

 furnished stone for the Croton aqueduct gate-house, and 

 the sea wall on Governor's Island, These limestones an- 

 swer well for such construction. The massive Lenox li- 

 brary building, Fifth avenue and Seventieth street, is of 

 Lockport gray limestone. Of a light-gray color, it looks 

 when hammer-dressed, like a granite, but on close inspection 

 the exterior appears to be worn and pitted by the falling out 

 of the fossiliferous portions, and the tool-marks are already 

 nearly effaced by the wear of the surface. These signs of 

 wear are more apparent on the south than on the north fronts. 

 This decay of a beautiful stone, when protected from the 

 weather, is said to be due to the placing it on edge. 



The oolitic limestones of Indiana and Kentucky, intro- 



