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. And
Burr, angered because of this, and believing that Hamilton had sought to
bring dishonor upon him, challenged Hamilton to a duel--the popular way
of settling such serious grievances. So Hamilton accepted the challenge
and on a morning in the middle of the summer of 1804, just after
sunrise, the duel took place on the heights of the shore of New Jersey,
just above Weehawken. Hamilton fell at the first fire mortally wounded.
The next day he died.

There was great sorrow throughout the entire country, for he was a brave
and good man, and had been a leader since the War of the Revolution. All
the citizens followed him to his rest in Trinity Churchyard, and in the
churchyard to-day you can see his tomb carefully taken care of and
decorated, year by year.