This first universal exhibition held on American soil was situated in what is now known as Bryant Park, in New York City. It is now in the very heart of the city, at Sixth Avenue and Fortieth and Forty-second Streets. In 1853 it was well out of town in the suburbs, and was known as Reservoir Square. At that time it was surrounded by open fields and gardens, with here and there rows of pleasant rural cottages. A few of the streets were paved in that part of the city, but there was only a faint indication of what another generation would see. The little park was four hundred and fifty-five feet square, and almost the entire area was occupied by the Crystal Palace. The central idea embodied in the plan of the structure was that of a Greek cross, whose arms pointed north, south, east, and west. The extreme dimensions of the building, from north to south and from east to west, were 365 feet 5 inches, and the arms were each 149 feet 5 inches wide. The external angles formed by the arms of the cross were filled up with triangular structures, one story in height, thus making the outline of the ground plan an octagon. At each of the angles of the building was an octagonal tower, 76 feet high, and over the central intersection of the cross rose a magnificent dome, 100 feet in diameter and 123 feet high. The external walls of the building were composed almost exclusively of cast-iron and glass. The floors were of wood, and the roof was of wood, covered with tin and supported on wrought-iron framework. The roof was supported by 190 cast-iron columns on the ground floor, each 8 inches in diameter and 21 feet high. They divided the interior into two avenues or naves, each 41 feet 5 inches wide, with aisles, 54 feet wide, on each side. These naves, at their intersection, left an octagonal space 100 feet in diameter. The aisles were covered with galleries, while the naves were open to the roof and were spanned by semicircular arches of cast-iron. The dome was supported by twenty-four columns, each 62 feet high, connected at the top by wrought-iron trusses. On the top of these was a cast-iron bed-plate, with cast-iron shoes for the ribs of the dome, which were thirty-two in number. These ribs were bolted at the top to a horizontal ring of wrought and cast iron, 20 feet in diameter, surmounted by a lantern with thirty-two ornamental windows, decorated with the Arms of the Union and the several States. The whole quantity of iron employed in the construction amounted to 1,800 tons, of which 300 tons were wrought and 1,500 tons cast. The quantity of glass was 15,000 panes, or 55,000 square feet. The quantity of wood used amounted to 750,000 feet board measure. The principal dimensions of the building were as follows: From main floor to gallery floor, 24 feet; from main floor to ridge of nave, 67 feet 4 inches; from main floor to summit of dome, 123 feet 6 inches; area of main floor, 157,195 square feet; area