A WALK IN NEW YORK延伸探討-紐約市郵政總局的碑銘文

位處曼哈頓421街, 座落於賓夕凡尼亞車站及麥迪遜廣場公園對街, 建築物上方刻有以下的碑銘文~“NEITHER SNOW, NOR RAIN, NOR HEAT, NOR GLOOM OF NIGHT STAYS THESE COURIERS FROM THE SWIFT COMPLETION OF THEIR APPOINTED ROUNDS.”那就是紐約市著名歷史地標之一的-郵政總局(James A. Farley Post Office) 。

門廊上的碑銘文實際上是出自於設計該棟建築物的建築師William Mitchell Kendall,其摘錄引用著名歷史學家Herodotu在他的書中(“Histories”)描寫西元前500年左右,在居魯士大帝時統治時期由波斯人所操控的郵務系統。該段文句主要即是描述這些騎馬傳遞郵件的信差們對於郵件工作的忠貞。

由於此段碑銘文並未有任何中文翻譯資料,因此個人僅能依照字義粗陋釋義於下。如有謬誤,還請不吝指正。謝謝！

“NEITHER SNOW, NOR RAIN, NOR HEAT, NOR GLOOM OF NIGHT STAYS THESE COURIERS FROM THE SWIFT COMPLETION OF THEIR APPOINTED ROUNDS.”

“不論雨雪、炎熱亦或是夜的幽暗都不能延遲這些信差迅速完成他們所被委託交付的投遞任務”

另亦一併摘錄網路上有關紐約郵政總局的歷史相關資料,希望提供各位參考。

James A. Farley Post Office
New York City's General Post Office, the James A. Farley Post Office is located at 421 Eighth Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets in Manhattan, across the street from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. The building, bearing the inscription: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds, is a national historic landmark, and occupies two full city blocks, an eight-acre footprint straddling the Northeast Rail Corridor in the heart of New York's Midtown. The inscription was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the Farley Building and the original Pennsylvania Station in the same Beaux Arts style. The sentence is a paraphrase of an excerpt from the works of Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus, about 500 B.C.E. The Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers, and the sentence describes the fidelity with which their work was done.

The Farley Post Office was constructed in two stages. The original monumental front half was built in 1912 and opened for postal business in 1914; the building was doubled in 1934 where it backs up to Ninth Avenue: along the side streets, McKim, Mead, and White's range, which continues its Corinthian giant order as pilasters between the window bays, was simply repeated in order to carry the facade to Ninth Avenue. The monumental fa?ade on Eighth Avenue was conceived as a Corinthian colonnade braced at the end by two pavilions. The imposing design was meant to match in strength the colonnade of Pennsylvania Station (McKim, Mead, and White, 1910) that originally faced it across the avenue. An unbroken flight of steps the full length of the colonnade provides access, for the main floor devoted to customer services is above a functional basement level that rises out of a dry moat giving light and air to workspaces below. Each of the square end pavilions is capped with a low saucer dome, expressed on the exterior as a low stepped pyramid. Inside, the visitor finds an unbroken vista down a long gallery that parallels the colonnaded front.

Upon opening in 1914 it was named the Pennsylvania Terminal. In July 1918, the building was renamed the General Post Office, and in 1982, renamed once more as the James A. Farley Building. James Farley was the 53rd Postmaster General and served from 1933 to 1940. He died in 1976. The building has its own railroad platform in Penn Station.

The Farley Building was instrumental to maintaining service levels in the New York City area following the 9/11 attacks when it served as a back up to operations for the Church Street Station Post Office located across the street from the World Trade Center complex. Advances in automated mail processing technology, coupled with adjustments to postal distribution and transportation networks now make it feasible to absorb associated mail volumes at the Morgan Center.

James A. Farley Post Office, New York, NY

Posted on August 31, 2010 by parisnyctokyo

James A. Farley Post Office

Take a look at the James A. Farley Post Office, one of the most famous post offices in the United States. Farley is the main post office in New York City. It sits on two city blocks and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

James A. Farley Post Office from 8th Avenue

The building was built in 1912 and opened as a post office in 1914. It was expanded in 1934, under the leadership of Postmaster General James Farley, for whom the post office is now named. The building is built in Beaux-Arts style. Perhaps the most impressive feature on the building is the massive Corinthian collonade, which drips down from the front of the building providing an impressive view for anyone walking around the Madison Square Garden area. The colonnade is the longest giant order Corinthian collonade in the world.

Collonade and Part of the Inscription

The building also bears the famous inscription, “Neither rain nor snow nor heat nor gloom of night, stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Many people believe the inscription is the motto of the U.S. Postal Service. That is not true. The idea for the inscrpition was provided by William Mitchell Kendall, one of the building’s architects. Kendall took it from the ancient historian Herodotus. Herodotus used the phrase to describe the Persian postal system, in his book “Histories.”

Interior of the Farley Post Office

The post office used to feature 24-hour window service. That was stopped in 2009 due to decreasing mail traffic. The building remains one of the few post offices open 7 days a week, although there is no window service on holidays.

A Mail Stagecoach inside the Farley Post Office

There are a few interesting historical artifacts inside the Farley Post Office, including this old mail coach. It was used to deliver mail in rural areas. There are also mailboxes from Europe.