,) the first story has been finished. It will probably
require several years to complete the edifice. The price paid for the
land was $500,000, a merely nominal sum. It is expected that the
building will cost about $4,000,000.

"The exterior walls are to be of Dix Island granite, and the dimensions
of the four fronts are severally as follows: the northerly side (toward
the City Hall) is about 300 feet; the Broadway and Park Row fronts,
respectively, 270 feet; and the southerly part, 130 feet.

[Picture: THE NEW POST-OFFICE.]

"The difficulty of laying the foundations may be judged from the
following facts: The depth of excavation over the entire plot was over
thirty feet, and the material to be removed was entirely loose sand,
while the traffic in Broadway and Park Row, including railroad cars and
omnibuses, was enormous, involving the danger of a caving-in of both
streets! The trenches in which the retaining walls and pier foundations
were to be laid had to be completely incased in sheet-piling, shored
across with timbers, under the protection of which the excavation was
carried on and the masonry laid. The excavation was done mostly at
night, the ground being illuminated by magnesium light. The outer walls,
and those of the court, and the foundations of the interior columns are
based on huge granite blocks, the granite being laid on massive beds of
concrete. One hundred and fifty-nine iron columns in the basement, and
117 in the first story, support the walls and floors. The piers of the
cellar are of granite, or arcaded brick and iron; the stairs are of stone
and iron; the chimneys, of stone; the roof and its ornaments, of iron,
covered with slate and copper. Four large low-pressure boilers supply
the steam for heating the entire building. The roofs of the corner
pavilions rise 107 feet above the sidewalk. The cellar is a little more
than seven feet in the clear; the basement, sixteen feet; the first
corridor, fourteen feet; and the half-story above it--both completing the
first story--also fourteen feet. The entire circuit of the building is
over one-fifth of a mile.

"The style of architecture is the classical Italian Renaissance, with
some modifications to harmonize with the treatment of the roofs, which
are to be French, as best suited to such architecture on a large scale.
The Mansard roof will be covered with an ironclad cornice and metallic
cresting.

"The irregular angles