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The Historian · Eleanor · New York

Tweed Courthouse

Civic Center · Civic building · Free

This building is a monument to graft. Boss Tweed's ring used its construction (1861–1881) to siphon an estimated $12 million-plus from the city — more than the U.S. paid for Alaska. The grand interior is genuinely beautiful, which is exactly the point: corruption built something magnificent and bankrupted the city doing it. Tweed himself was tried in a courtroom here.

The courthouse 'Boss' Tweed used to loot the city treasury — its cost itself is the lesson.

— Eleanor, The Historian
The move — Eleanor's insider tip for Tweed Courthouse — is in the app.
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