Milizia gives the following interesting account of the removal of the
immense mass of granite, which forms the pedestal or base of the
equestrian statue of Peter the Great, from the bogs of the Neva to St.
Petersburg, a distance of about fourteen miles. He also cites it as an
instance of extraordinary ingenuity and skill in mechanics. It is,
however, a much easier task to move a ponderous mass of rough, unhewn
rock, than a brittle obelisk, an hundred feet or so in length, requiring
the greatest care to preserve it from injury. It is also worthy of
mention, that in widening streets in New York, it is no uncommon thing
to see a three-story brick house set back ten or fifteen feet, and even
moved across the street, and raised an extra story into the bargain--the
story being added to the _bottom_ instead of the _top_ of the building.
Thus the large free stone and brick school-house in the First Ward, an
edifice of four lofty stories, 50 by 70 feet, and basement walls 2½ feet
thick, has been raised six feet, to make it correspond with the new
grade in the lower part of Greenwich-street. It is also no uncommon
thing to see a ship of a thousand tons, with her cargo on board, raised
out of the water at the Hydraulic Dock, to stop a leak, or make some
unexpected but necessary repairs.

"In 1769, the Count Marino Carburi, of Cephalonia, moved a mass of
granite, weighing three million pounds, to St. Petersburg, to serve as a
base for the equestrian statue of Peter the Great, to be erected in the
square of that city, after the design of M. Falconet, who discarded the
common mode of placing an equestrian statue on a pedestal, where,
properly speaking, it never could be; and suggested a rock, on which the
hero was to have the appearance of galloping, but suddenly be arrested
at the sight of an enormous serpent, which, with other obstacles, he
overcomes for the happiness of the Muscovites. None but a Catherine II.,
who so gloriously accomplished all the great ideas of that hero, could