University of Virginia Library

THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BUILDING.

Each of the Departments of Government at Washington has been assigned space in the building erected by the United States for its exhibit. The War Department, 23,000 square feet; Treasury, 10,500 square feet; Agriculture, 23,250 square feet; Interior, 24,000 square feet ; Post Office, 9,000 square feet; Fisheries, 20,000 square feet, and Smithsonian Institute balance of space. The State Department exhibit extends from the rotunda to the east end, and that of the Department of justice from the rotunda to the west end of the building.

The Government building formed one of the principal attractions at the Philadelphia exposition. Its ordnance exhibit was particularly fine, and with the National Museum to draw from, can produce relics which are of inestimable value and interest. Its position at the Columbian Exposition is between the lake shore and the lagoon, in the broad plain between the Manufactures and Fisheries Buildings, connected with the latter by a bridge. It is of classic style and resembles much the National Museum at Washington. The building is very substantially constructed of iron and glass, and has for its principal architectural feature an imposing central dome one hundred and. twenty feet in diameter and one hundred and fifty feet high, the space beneath which is clear of exhibits. Near by is the Naval Exhibit which should be classed as an annex to the Government Building, completing the departmental list; and across the narrow strait which connects the lake with the lagoon, are the buildings erected by the governments of Great Britain, Germany, and Mexico.