ARCHITECTURE. 213 
very subordinate buildings, at most an ornament of the gate, or they are 
destined for the collection of the state duties, and stand then generally near 
the wharfs or freight depots. ‘They contain various offices, a hall of sessions 
for the officials, and sometimes dwellings for one or more of them. The 
custom-house of New York (jg. 8), built in a fine old Doric style, is admi- 
rable as an ornament, but certainly suggests upon the exterior anything rather 
than a building for the collection of duties. The facade, of a fine Greek 
temple style, is built of white marble, and being placed on a considerable 
substructure, has a very good effect. 
Watch-houses are public buildings for the accommodation of soldiers or 
officials who have charge of the public peace. They are therefore very sim- 
ple, often included in the excise building, or are decorations of the gate and 
the open square. ‘They contain nothing but the rooms for the officers and 
men, and a chamber of confinement for the arrested delinquents. The decora- 
tion of these buildings is very various. Those of the residential cities are 
usually very handsome. When Paris was made a fortress, a certain system 
was introduced in this matter. Watch-houses were placed in the interior of the 
city (pl. 57, fig. 16 a, ground plan ; fig. 16 b, elevation), and were manned by 
strong detachments of the National Guard, oud Vedette houses (jig. 17) for 
subordinate posts. These watch-houses are so arranged that they can be 
defended for some time against a superior force; some are even furnished 
with light cannon. 
10. Honorary Monuments. 
Honorary monuments are erected either for the commemoration of great 
events or of great men, and there are very various ideas of their construc- 
tion from a simple statue to columns and arches of honor. The use of 
them dates from the most remote antiquity, but modern times have 
abounded in monuments to individuals, many of whom were very much 
honored and very little fed while they lived. We will describe some of 
these modern monuments. 
In commemoration of the great victory which Napoleon had achieved as 
in a whirlwind, he resolved in the year 1806 to erect a superb triumphal arch, 
the present Arc del’ Htoile in Paris (pl. 57, fig. 1). The ground was so 
unstable that an artificial foundation was necessary to secure the building. 
When Napoleon married Maria Louisa of Austria, the building was scarcely 
above the foundation, and it was finished for the occasion of their entrance 
into Paris with wooden scaffoldings, covered with linen and painted, so that 
the architect Chalgrin had the rare fortune of seeing the model of his build- 
ing in the natural size. In 1811 it was continued by the architect Goust; in 
1814 it was interrupted ; and in 1823 Huyot and Goust began itagain. In 
1828 it stopped again, and in 1832 Blouet was ordered to ee it as 
rapidly as patie, made in 1836 it was finished, after an expenditure of about 
ten millions of francs. The monument is 137 feet long, 68 feet broad, and 152 
feet high. The middle arch has a span of 90 feet. The reliefs upon the side 
213 
