g of the Brandenburger Thor a triumphal arch marking
the victory of Prussia in the long contest.
The famous Unter den Linden, nearly two hundred feet wide and three
fourths of a mile in length, with a double line of lime-trees
enclosing an area of greensward along the centre, would be accounted
anywhere a handsome street, with the palaces of the Pariser Platz at
one end, the Imperial palaces, the Arsenal, the Academy, and the
University at the other, and brilliant shop-windows lining both sides
of the whole length, while the Brandenburg Gate and the great
equestrian statue of Frederick the Great at either extremity close the
fine vista. Leaving out of view, however, these two noble features
which mark its termini, the street seemed not handsome enough to
justify its fame. Perhaps this was because we found the famous
lime-trees, for which the street is named, quite ordinary young trees,
not to be compared with the magnificent elms which line the streets of
New Haven and the Mall of Boston Common.
The characteristic part of Berlin is, to our view, the great space
east of Unter den Linden, surrounded by the palaces, the royal Guard
House, the Arsenal, the University, and the Academy of Arts and
Sciences. These fine buildings and the ornamented open spaces around
and between them, on a sunny afternoon in midwinter, show a brilliant
and unique scene which has hardly its parallel in Europe. The Champs
Elysees is finer at night; Hyde Park, St. James, the Parliament
buildings, and Westminster Abbey far finer on a sunny morning; but the
third city in Europe has no need to be ashamed of its royal buildings
and the scene before them, in the season when the Court is in Berlin,
and the slant rays of an early afternoon sun light up the gay throng
of soldiers in uniform, State carriages, pedestrians, and vehicles
which surge to and fro without crowding the vast spaces.
The Lustgarten is fine; but of the buildings around it, the Old Museum
alone meets the eye with architectural satisfaction. In all lights
that building is beautiful in design and proportions. The Old Schloss
is impressive mainly by its massiveness and its august dome. A most
picturesque view by moonlight is to be had from the east end of the
Lange or Kuerfuersten Bruecke, southeast of the old palace. Here the
water-front of the old castle is in full view, with the fortified part
unaltered since the early occupation by the Hohenzollerns. This
mediaeval building, sh
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