]
From time to time there were projects for setting out a handsome park
about the shores of the Collect Pond, but the townspeople thought it was
too far away from the city. But in a few years the city grew up to the
Collect Pond, which was then filled in, and to-day a gloomy prison (The
Tombs) is built upon the spot.
One of the new undertakings was the building of a new City Hall, as the
old one in Wall Street was no longer large enough. So the present City
Hall was begun on what was then the Common, but it was not finished for
a good ten years. The front and sides were of white marble, and the rear
of cheaper red sandstone, as it was thought that it would be many years
before anyone would live far enough uptown to notice the difference.
How odd this seems in these days, when the City Hall is quite at the
beginning of the city.
Aaron Burr had by this time been elected Vice-President of the United
States. But he soon lost the confidence of the people, and when, in the
year 1803, he hoped to be made Governor of the State of New York, he was
defeated.
[Illustration: The Grange, Kingsbridge Road, the Residence of Alexander
Hamilton.]
Now at this time Alexander Hamilton was still a leader in the party
opposed to Aaron Burr, and did everything possible to defeat him.
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