1st. Its central position, in the midst of the finest agricultural region of the State.
2d. Its situation at the head of tide water on the largest river of the State.
3d. It is the great railroad centre. Four leading roads terminate there.
4th. It is the political capital, having become so in 1854.
The city was originally built on ground so low and level that the heavy floods have twice broken through the levee and nearly destroyed the town. The two great floods were those of 1851-2 and 1861-2. Thus, by sheer necessity of self-preservation, the inhabitants have been compelled to raise the grade of all the streets, and, in fact, of almost the whole city, nearly ten feet above the original level.
Sacramento has fine schools and churches, while the gardens, and shrubbery about the houses, combined with the trees along the streets, give it a most refreshing, home-like, and attractive appearance. Beyond the depots, immense foundries and machine shops of the Central Pacific railroad, the city presents the single great attraction of the
State Capitol, an immense building occupying the centre of four blocks, bounded by L and N streets on the north and south, and by Twelfth and Tenth streets on the east and west. These four blocks were a gift from the city to the State. The building faces west, fronting three hundred and twenty feet on Tenth street, while its two wings run back along L and N streets, one hundred and sixty-four feet upon each. Its height is eighty feet, divided into three lofty stories. The lower story is granite; those above, brick. The main entrance is approached by granite steps, twenty-five feet high and eighty feet wide. The style of architecture is composite—the Roman Corinthian. The building was begun ten years ago, has been steadily carried on since, and will probably require two or three years longer for its full completion.
The Interior.—Entering the vestibule, we find ourselves in a hall twenty feet deep, seventy-three feet wide, and having broad stairs on either hand. From the vestibule a broad and high-arched doorway, admits us to the
Rotunda, seventy-two feet in diameter, and rising through the height of the first dome. In the wall, between the openings of the different broad halls, are four niches to be filled by statues of Washington, Lincoln, a pioneer miner, and a pioneer hunter, one half larger than life. Above these niches and the hall entrances, will be eight panels, each thirteen feet by six, with stucco frames for frescoes. Directly over each of these will be a round panel for similar purposes, and with similar ornamentation. Above these circular panels, will be a row of thirteen sunken panels, each thirteen by eight and a half feet, to be filled with pictures; and over these, still higher up, a tier of frames, each ten by sixteen feet, numbering sixteen in all, and also intended for paintings. The frames of these last extend clear to the bottom of the sky-light, and are to be painted red, white and blue, successively, thus presenting from below a huge sixteen pointed star of the national colors.
The First Story is twenty-one and a half feet high. From the right of the rotunda, a hall sixteen feet wide, leads south through the centre of that wing. First, on the right, are the Secretary of State's two rooms, twenty-nine feet wide, and having a united length of forty-seven feet, elegantly finished and furnished. Beyond these, in the southwest corner, is a reception, or committee room, twenty-seven by thirty, while the other corner has a like space divided into two rooms for similar purposes. Opposite the Secretary's is the Chief Justice's room. As we may not have time to descend to and describe the lower or ground floor, we may here say that its space is mainly occupied by the Judges of the Supreme Court. In the north wing we have a similar arrangement of rooms, and to be occupied by the State Treasurer, Controller, Attorney-General, Board of Education, besides two yet unassigned.