The enterprise received official endorsement from the Federal Government when Congress in July, 1898, by resolution declared that "A Pan-American Exposition will undoubtedly be of vast benefit to the commercial interests of the countries of North, South and Central America, and it merits the approval of Congress, and of the people of the United States." In March, 1899, Congress appropriated $500,000, and declared that "it is desirable to encourage the holding of a Pan-American Exposition on the Niagara Frontier in the City of Buffalo, in the year 1901, fittingly to illustrate the marvelous development of the Western Hemisphere during the Nineteenth Century, by a display of the arts, industries, manufactures and the products of the soil, mine and sea," and also declared that "the proposed Pan-American Exposition being confined to the Western Hemisphere, and being held in the near vicinity of the great Niagara Cataract, within a day's journey of which reside forty million people, would unquestionably be of vast benefit to the commercial interests, not only of this country, but of the entire hemisphere, and should therefore have the sanction of the Congress of the United States." The grounds of the Exposition are in the northern part of the city of Buffalo, taking in a portion of its most beautiful public park. They extend about one mile in length, from north to south, and about half a mile in width, containing 350 acres. A general plan of landscape and building architecture, with which every detail of form and color should be made to harmonize, was worked out at the beginning by a board of the leading architects of the United States, and has been adhered to with beautifully harmonious effects. In one of the circular announcements of the Exposition it is said: "In planning the Exposition the management early decided upon giving to electricity special homage. The progress of the electrical science has been so marked in recent years as to excite the wonderment of the scientific world. Buffalo is, perhaps, more than any other city on the globe, interested in this science, owing to the nearness of Niagara Falls, where the greatest electric power plants known to this class of engineering have been installed. In fact the electrical displays here contemplated would be impossible except where a large volume of power is available, such as Buffalo receives from the great Falls of Niagara. … The Pan-American Exposition will far surpass former enterprises of this kind in six important features: First, the electrical effects: second, the hydraulic and fountain effects; third, the horticultural, floral and garden effects; fourth, the original sculptural ornamentation; fifth, the color decorations; sixth, the court settings.