Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/500

480 WASHINGTON (CITY) state, war, and navy departments. It is of granite, in the Roman-Doric style, 471 ft. long and 253 ft. wide, or including projections and steps 567 by 342 ft., and 128 ft. high. It has four facades, those on the north and south and on the east and west respectively being counterparts. It was begun in 1871, and the S. portion was occupied by the state depart- ment in 1875. The war and navy departments still occupy plain brick structures, which are to be taken down to give place to the new building. The department of the interior is in a grand Doric building of marble, free- stone, and granite, commonly called the pat- ent office. It occupies two blocks, between 7th and 9th and F and G streets, in the cen- tral portion of the city, and is 453 ft. long and 331 ft. wide, including porticoes, and 75 ft. high. Besides the patent offices, the edi- fice contains the pension office, and the offices of public lands and Indian affairs. The most interesting feature is the very extensive col- lection of inventors' models. On the oppo- site side of F street is the general post office, a marble structure in the Corinthian style. It is 300 ft. long and 204 ft. wide, and consists of two stories with a rustic basement. Here are the office of the postmaster general, the dead letter office, and the city post office. The de- partment of agriculture occupies a renaissance building of brick and brown stone trimmings, 170 by 61 ft. and three stories high, besides basement and Mansard roof, situated between the Smithsonian institution and the Washing- ton monument. It contains a museum, and has extensive greenhouses. The grounds are handsomely laid out, and contain a great vari- ety of trees and plants. The United States naval observatory (lat. 38 53' 38-8", Ion. 77 3' T8") occupies a commanding site on the bank of the Potomac in the W. part of the city, in a handsome enclosure of 19 acres. By act of congress the meridian of the observato- ry is adopted as the American meridian for all astronomical purposes, and the meridian of Greenwich is adopted for all nautical purposes. The department of justice, bureau of educa- tion, office of the geological survey of the ter- ritories, nautical almanac office, signal office, and coast survey office occupy rented build- ings. The army medical museum, the ordnance museum, and the government printing office are noteworthy. The arsenal is at the extreme 8. point of the city ; the grounds comprise 45 acres, handsomely laid out. The navy yard is on the Anaoostia, and contains 27 acres; near it are the marine barracks. The District court house is on Judiciary square ; the new jail is in the E. part of the city. Among the princi- pal buildings not belonging to the government are the masonic temple, odd fellows' hall, and Lincoln hall, which contains the library and reading room of the young men's Christian as- sociation. The Corcoran art gallery occupies a fine building near the white house. It was conveyed to a board of trustees for the ben- efit of the public in 1869 by W. W. Corcoran, a Washington banker. The principal theatres are Ford's opera house and the National thea- tre. The hotels of Washington are a prominent feature of the city. The principal are the Ar- lington, Ebbitt, Imperial, Metropolitan, Nation- al, St. James, St. Marc, and Willard's. There Corcoran Art Building. are five principal markets, of which three have fine buildings. There is a bridge across tho Potomac, known as the "long" bridge, for railroad and ordinary travel. The Anacostia is spanned by three bridges (one for railroads only) and Rock creek by four. Horse cars run to every quarter of the city and to George- town. Communication with the north- is fur- nished by tho Baltimore and Ohio and Balti- more and Potomac railroads; with the west by the Baltimore and Ohio; and with the south by the Alexandria and Washington, which crosses the long bridge. There are two depots. Ferry steamers ply hourly to Alex- andria, Va. The prosperity of Washington depends upon the presence of the national government, and there is very little manu- facturing or other business. The city con- tains five national banks, with an aggregate capital of $1,700,000, three savings banks, a safe deposit company, and 13 insurance com- panies (two life), with an aggregate capital of $2,650,000. The taxable value of real prop- erty in 1875 was $78,818,934, besides which there was about $21,000,000 worth exempt from taxation, not including the public build- ings of the general government. The metro- politan police force has jurisdiction through- out the District of Columbia; the fire depart- ment is also coextensive with the District. Washington and Georgetown are supplied with water from the great falls of the Potomac above by an aqueduct 12 m. long, which dis- charges into a distributing reservoir 2 m. from Rock creek and 4-J m. from the capitol. It was begun in 1853 and completed in 1859, and