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| THE BELGIAN PORTAL AND FACADE - The scene here
portrayed by the photograph is a very truthful one, for the camera
has not exaggerated the width of Columbia Avenue in the Manufactures Building. The reader here
obtains a fine view of the arches, and although they do not touch the
floor until a distance of one hundred and ninety-four feet from the
line of chairs has been reached, this is merely the inner hall of the
structure, and it still extends another two hundred feet behind this
facade. The building, beside this, was one thousand seven hundred
and sixty feet long, so it is to be noted that there are many city
streets outdoors that are not so wide or so long as Columbia Avenue,
which constituted the main aisle. The Belgian Portal was the first
of the large interior constructions to reach completion, and was
erected by Belgian workmen. The facade was one hundred and forty
feet long. It presented a bright and elegant appearance, and it was
in these handsome facades that the Austrian, German, French,
Belgian, Russian, Swiss, Danish and Canadian peoples, as if by
convention, outdid the Americans and British, who had no such main
ornaments. Entering this richly paneled and heavily hung portal, a
beautiful statue in blue bronze by the lost process in wax,
represented Leonidas at Thermopylae. The chinaware here exhibited
was considered by many to be the finest ever seen, and the exhibits
of Pouyat and Haviland may be mentioned with special propriety. The
Belgian and French exhibits in general were equally tasteful. |
