The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-29 00:00:00

711 E SUB-7REASURY.

ARGOSIES OF GOLD-NINETY TONS OF COIN IN SAFE.
The vaults of the United States Sub-Treasury
are said to exceed in size those of the Bank of Eng-
land. The strong and burglar-proof manner in
which they have been constructed excites the admi-
ration of all beholders. There are two of these im-
mense vaults, one at each corner of the Pine-street
end of the rotunda. The rooms are perhaps 20
feet long by 15 feet wide, and 10 or 12 feet high.
They contain no window ; there is but one door
opening into each, and gas-lights are kept burning
inside.
The internal appearance of these vaults has a
striking resemblance to a fashionable tomb i❑
Greenwood Cemetery, rows of cases being arranged
around the sides of the room, each about two feet
square, with iron doors attached. There is one
door for each case, and when the apartment has
been fillei with bags of gold or bundles of green-
backs the doors are closed. Each case will contain
half a million of dollars, put up in bags of five
thousand dollars each. When a case is thus filled
the door is closed, and a seal is affixed in the pre-
sence of the Naval Officer and the Surveyor of the
Port. It takes 100 bags to hold half a million of
dollars. In the first vault entered there were 72
compartments arranged round the room, which
formed a tier somewhat higher than a man's
head.
Running over the top of these was a balcony with
an iron railing in front. There was piled up in this
balcony, in one heap, six million of dollars, in five
and ten dollar bills ; one-half million of dollars in
internal revenue stamps, fifty thousand dollars in
fractional currency, put up in large paper b3xes,
and five and one-half millions in United States
bonds.
The floor of the vault rests on 30 feet of solid
masonry, from the ground up. On the top of this
granite there are two feet of wrought iron, and be-
tween the iron plates a space filled up with bullets.
If a rogue should succeed in boring through the
granite and iron, the moment his drill touched a
bullet, that would commence to revolve, and by the
time he had penetrated it another ball would drop
in its place ; in this way he would soon find that he
had an endless job before him, and the attempt to
get into the vault would have to be abandoned.
The sides and top of the room aro composed of
eight feet of granite and two of iron, arranged in
the same ►nanner as for the floor. This safe, as
it is called, W.AS invented by Mr. Isaiah Rogers. Mr.
Rogers once remarked that if the people at the
Treasury building should happen to get locked out
of the safe it would take him a month to break into it.
A night watch is kept to look after these strong
boxes, but they are considered perfectly safe with•
out him.
There are four doors to be opened, one after the
other, before we can enter the safe. Each one of
these doors weighs two tons, and contains locks of
different patterns. A lever is so arranged that after
the doors are closed four large iron bolts are thrown
across the door-way, resting in sockets, which have
been made in a pillar of wrought iron. If a thief
should succeed in cutting the hinges of one of
these doors, usually considered to be the most
vulnerable point, the door would not drop down
from its place, and nothing would be gained. Like .