There is one nifty winged gargoyle halfway up the corner of the building on the left. First that I've noticed in the many Shorpy Buildings.

"Architects found that the soil was too soft to support the original building plan, so the plans were altered and a request for more funds was put before the United States Congress. Materials were shipped in from all over the United States, including marble and slate from Vermont, Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as mahogany from Africa."

To design a structure as ornate and expensive as this, and then to go back and ask for *more* money, requires a certain level of chutzpah.

I see two large gate valves and other hardware but no excavation.

[Look over to the right. - Dave]

Quite an amalgam of styles piled up together. Built in the 1880s and demolished in 1966.

It seems as if those old government buildings from this era always had some kind of cupola or tower over the basic structure. I assume it was to watch for Indian attacks.

In 1904, that would have been "Pittsburg."

A classic rendering in the Mishmash Revival style, but still an impressive show of craftsmanship.