★★★★★ 5.0
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New York City Hall
Every morning those bronze doors swing open for city business, just like they have for 213 years straight - a record no other American city hall can match. You're standing where cattle grazed in the 1600s when this was just communal pasture. Here's what kills me - when they finished this beauty in 1812, New Yorkers complained it was way too far NORTH, like putting city hall in the suburbs! The French architect pulled a sneaky cost-cutting trick too - that back wall is cheaper brownstone while the front got fancy Massachusetts marble. Step inside for the real showstopper: a circular marble staircase that supports itself without any center column. It's pure 1803 engineering magic that still makes modern architects scratch their heads. George Washington's actual congressional chair sits upstairs, waiting.
Did You Know?
- New York City Hall is the oldest city hall in the United States still used for its original governmental functions, completed in 1812 and designed by Joseph-François Mangin and John McComb Jr.—a rare collaboration between a French-trained architect and a New Yorker, whose partnership never happened again after this project.
- City Hall’s famous rotunda was where both President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant lay in state after their deaths, making it a site of national mourning and remembrance, and the surrounding park was the site of the first public protest against British rule in 1766, marked by the erection of a 'Liberty Pole' as a symbol of resistance.
- The building’s facade was originally made of Massachusetts marble, but due to deterioration, it was replaced with Alabama limestone in the 1950s; meanwhile, to save money during construction, the rear of the building was built with cheaper brownstone, a clever cost-saving measure that can still be seen today.