=The Eight Great Columns= standing in a semicircle around the Sanctuary and forming seven interspaces opposite the seven Chapels of Tongues, are among the marvels of the Cathedral. They are approached in size only by those in St. Isaac’s Cathedral, Petrograd. The shafts of light gray granite from Bear Island, near Vinal Haven on the coast of Maine, were quarried as monoliths and turned on a special lathe which cost $50,000. When the first two were subjected to the pressure of polishing they broke, and the contractor then obtained permission to make the shafts in two pieces. The lower stone in each shaft is 38 feet high and weighs 90 tons, and the upper stone is 17 feet high and weighs 40 tons, the total height between base and capital being 55 feet and the weight 130 tons. The octagonal capitals of pierre de Lens by Mr. Post represent singing angels. The columns were given as memorials of the men whose names are carved on the bases seen in the Ambulatory (south to north:) “Alonzo Potter,[26] Bishop of Pennsylvania, 1800-1865;” “Colonel Richard Tylden Auchmuty, U. S. V., 1831-1893;” “Harry Manigault Morris, 1817-1892;” “Eugene Augustus Hoffman, 1829-1902;” “John Jacob Astor, 1763-1848;” “John Divine Jones, 1814-1895;” “Josiah Mason Fiske, 1823-1892;” and “Joseph Lawrence, 1788-1872.” Each column cost $25,000, not including the expense of erection. They were made by Mr. John Pierce of Vinal Haven, Me. =The Clerestory Windows= of the Choir, nine in number, of which seven are above the entrances to the seven Chapels of Tongues, are designed to depict the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine. Seven of them are in place. They are of painted mosaic glass made by Messrs. James Powell & Sons of Whitefriars, London, according to the methods used in the thirteenth century and cost $10,000 and upwards apiece. Each window is of three lights with rose window at the top, and is 28 feet high and 17 feet wide. The seven windows above the entrances to the Seven Chapels of Tongues (north to south) are designed to symbolize in their circular lights the messages to the seven churches in Asia mentioned in the Book of Revelation (i. 11), in the order there named: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. They are connected by the inscriptions in their lower borders which read consecutively as follows: “Grace be unto you and Peace from Him ‖ Which is and Which was and Which is to come ‖ From the Seven Spirits which are before His throne ‖ Jesus Christ the Faithful Witness ‖ The First Begotten of the Dead ‖ The Prince of the Kings of the Earth. ‖ To Him be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever” (Rev. i. 4-6).