The most historic house in New York is the Jumel Mansion. In Washington's time it was the handsomest house in the city, and besides, it had a fine situation way up on Harlem Heights overlooking the river. It was there that General Washington made his headquarters. It is what grown-ups call "very quaint," and the glass for the windows and the hand-painted paper for the walls came over from France. We saw the narrow hall where the sentry paced back and forth as he guarded Washington's slumber, and the council chamber where the general and his staff decided so many questions. There is the cupboard where Andre, the spy, hid, but the secret passage down to the river has been closed because of the river rats.
After the war the Jumels, (some wealthy French people) bought the house, and later Madame Jumel married the famous Aaron Burr. Jerome Bonaparte, brother of the Emperor Napoleon, once visited Madame Jumel in this house, and many other distinguished people have slept under its roof. It is the most interesting house we have ever seen, and someway it has made United States history seem more real than it does in the school books.
Anyway, when at sunset we went down to the harbor and looked out at the Statue of Liberty, she seemed to sort of belong to us and to all American boys and girls.
An architect said to us: "New York has a wonderful skyline." He explained that the "skyline" is the silhouette that the buildings make against the sky. In some cities the buildings are so nearly one height that the skyline is level and uninteresting, but in New York there are tall sky-scrapers, low buildings, domes, towers, and smokestacks, so that the skyline is full of variety. The picture shows the skyline of lower New York as we saw it from Brooklyn Bridge, which is the oldest bridge connecting Brooklyn with Manhattan. It is over a mile long. The bridge was designed by John Roebling, but he died before it was begun. His son took his place, but he worked so hard planning and superintending the work that in three years he became an invalid. Then he took a house overlooking the bridge, and from his invalid chair he watched through a telescope and directed all the work till it was completed ten years later.