Finest Building in America

When first opened to the public in 1853, New York''s Crystal Palace created a sensation. Those who had seen London''s Crystal Palace, the structure it was openly intended to emulate, argued that America''s copy far surpassed it. Built in what is today Bryant Park, a four-acre site between 40th and 42nd Streets, the colossus of glass and steel indeed seemed poised to displace the British original i...