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91-416: Postal authorities often have functions aside from transporting letters. In some countries, a postal, telegraph and telephone (PTT) service oversees the postal system, in addition to telephone and telegraph systems. Some countries' postal systems allow for savings accounts and handle applications for passports . The Universal Postal Union (UPU), established in 1874, includes 192 member countries and sets

182-554: A land lot measuring 455 feet (139 m) along Eighth and Ninth Avenues, and 800 feet (240 m) along 31st and 33rd Streets. According to the New York City Department of City Planning , it has a lot area of 364,000 square feet (33,800 m ) and a gross floor area of 1,378,125 square feet (128,032.0 m ). The Farley Building consists of the old general post office building, completed in 1914, and its western annex, completed in 1935. The original building

273-504: A legal monopoly . The worldwide postal system constituting the individual national postal systems of the world's self-governing states is coordinated by the Universal Postal Union , which among other things sets international postage rates, defines standards for postage stamps and operates the system of international reply coupons . In most countries a system of codes has been created (referred to as ZIP codes in

364-536: A 92 ft (28 m) tall glass skylight . The hall also contains 120,000 sq ft (11,000 m ) of retail space. Moynihan Train Hall contains passenger facilities for Amtrak , its primary tenant. These include a ticketing and baggage area, a waiting lounge, conference spaces, and a balcony 20 ft (6.1 m) above the hall. A general post office in Midtown Manhattan had been planned from

455-490: A PTT unit of government, typically the vast majority of forms of distribution of information fell under the auspices of the PTT, whether that be the delivery of printed publications and individual letters in the postal mail, the transmission of telephonic audio, or the transmission of telegraphic on-off signals, and in some countries, the broadcast of one-way (audio) radio and (audio-video) television signals . In many countries with

546-636: A block of dots as a two-dimensional barcode . The "block of dots" method allows for the encoding of proof of payment of postage, exact routing for delivery, and other features. The ordinary mail service was improved in the 20th century with the use of planes for a quicker delivery. The world's first scheduled airmail post service took place in the United Kingdom between the London suburbs of Hendon and Windsor, Berkshire , on 9 September 1911. Some methods of airmail proved ineffective, however, including

637-414: A current or former PTT, the PTT was also responsible for the manufacture and standardisation of telephone equipment. Often the presence of a single PTT in a country implied a single monolithic approach to the distribution of information in that country, which as an advantage permitted efficient deployment of a single national standard for each topic instead of ongoing debate about competing ideas, but which as

728-528: A disadvantage typically stifled alternative ideas from emerging once a legacy implementation had been widely deployed. In North America, instead of a PTT there was the private monopoly Bell System (for the US )/ Bell Canada (dominant ILEC in Ontario , Quebec and (historically) parts of what is now Nunavut ; competes with other fixed-line carriers in the rest of Canada ) responsible for telecommunications and

819-621: A form of meter label and thus do not need to be cancelled.) Documents should generally not be read by anyone other than the addressee; for example, in the United States of America it is a violation of federal law for anyone other than the addressee and the government to open mail. There are exceptions however: executives often assign secretaries or assistants the task of handling their mail; and postcards do not require opening and can be read by anyone. For mail contained within an envelope, there are legal provisions in some jurisdictions allowing

910-566: A historic Postal mansion his ancestors used to go to centuries earlier. Several European Post Carriers like Deutsche Post or Österreichische Post continue to use the Thurn & Taxis Post Horn in their company logo just like the global Phone Book of the World based in the old Postal mansion of King Louis XIV in Paris. In the United Kingdom, prior to 1840 letters were paid for by the recipient and

1001-512: A monopoly on fixed-line telecoms, with the separate state-owned Correos de España responsible for mail delivery. Portugal , until 1968, had a mixture, with a private telecom operator in Lisbon and Porto (named APT – Anglo-Portuguese Telephone Company ) another private company in charge of connections with and between colonies and with the rest of the world (CPRM – Companhia Portuguesa de Rádio Marconi ) and Correios, Telefones e Telégrafos ,

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1092-693: A new head house for Penn Station, called Moynihan Train Hall , which houses Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road . The first phase, consisting of new exits, a connection to the New York City Subway at 34th Street and Eighth Avenue , and an expanded concourse within the James Farley Post Office, started on October 18, 2010. The first phase opened in June 2017. Construction of the second phase, comprising

1183-520: A new train hall within the Farley Building, started two months afterward. It opened on January 1, 2021. As part of the Moynihan redevelopment, The Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust were selected to develop the building's retail space. The companies signed a contract in June 2017. Vornado and Related leased the building for 99 years, and in exchange, contributed $ 630 million to

1274-744: A postal system in the Empire, appointing Franz von Taxis to run it. This system, originally the Kaiserliche Reichspost , is often considered the first modern postal service in the world, which initiated a revolution in communication in Europe. The system combined contemporary technical and organization means to create a stable transcontinental service which was also the first to offer (fee-based) public access. The Thurn und Taxis family, then known as Tassis, had operated postal services between Italian city-states from 1290 onward. For 500 years

1365-633: A private mail service. Notably, the Cistercians had one which connected more than 6,000 abbeys , monasteries , and churches. The best organization, however, was created by the Knights Templar . In 1716, Correos y Telégrafos was established in Spain as public mail service, available to all citizens. Delivery postmen were first employed in 1756 and post boxes were installed firstly in 1762. In 1505, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I established

1456-479: A public company, as the PTT agency and owner of the telephone system in the rest of the country (including the former colonies ); that year, APT was nationalised and became Telefones de Lisboa e Porto (TLP). CTT still controls postal services in Portugal, while Telecom Portugal was spun out in 1992 and later merged into Portugal Telecom in 1994 (with CPRM becoming a subsidiary and later being absorbed in 2002); it

1547-671: A recorded 1,639 posthouses, including maritime offices, employing around 20,000 people. The system was administered by the Ministry of War and private correspondence was forbidden from the network. The Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644) sought a postal system to deliver mail quickly, securely, and cheaply. Adequate speed was always a problem, because of the slow overland transportation system, and underfunding. Its network had 1,936 posthouses every 60 li along major routes, with fresh horses available every 10 li between them. The Qing operated 1,785 posthouses throughout their lands. More efficient, however,

1638-565: A replica of the historic Penn Station , in which he had shined shoes during the Great Depression . At the time, existing facilities at Penn Station were overcrowded and the USPS was planning to move much of its operations to another facility. In 1994, the cornice was removed; it was so deteriorated that chunks of stone had started falling onto the street. Parts of the deteriorated steel structure were also replaced. The Farley Building

1729-459: A separate federally run US Postal Service / Canada Post for mail delivery. Japan also had a rather similar structure as North America with the formerly-state-owned Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT; privatised in 1985) having a monopoly on fixed-line telecoms, with the separate government-run but publicly-traded Japan Post responsible for mail delivery; as did Spain with Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España (CTNE; privatised in 1997) having

1820-528: A suspected criminal conspiracy, although black chambers (largely in the past, though there is apparently some continuance of their use today) opened extralegally. The mail service may be allowed to open the mail if neither addressee nor sender can be located, in order to attempt to locate either. Mail service may also open the mail to inspect if it contains materials that are hazardous to transport or violate local laws. Postal Telegraph and Telephone A postal, telegraph, and telephone service (or PTT )

1911-826: A ventilation flue . Nonetheless, the land for the post office was acquired by June 1906. The U.S. government took title to the site in January 1907, with an easement for the PRR allowing trains to use the tracks and platforms underneath. The architect was selected under the Tarsney Act of 1893, which permitted the Supervisory Architect to hold an architectural design competition for U.S. government facilities. Several prominent firms and architects were invited to submit plans in early 1908. Supervisory architect James Knox Taylor selected McKim, Mead & White for

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2002-683: Is a government agency responsible for postal mail , telegraph , and telephone services. Such monopolies existed in many countries, though not in North America , Japan or Spain . Many PTTs have been partially or completely privatised in recent years. In many of these privatisations, the privatised corporation was completely renamed, such as KPN in the Netherlands , Orange S.A. in France (+ Orange Polska in Poland ), BT Group in

2093-640: Is at 421 Eighth Avenue in the New York City borough of Manhattan . The site is bounded by Eighth Avenue to the east, 31st Street to the south, Ninth Avenue to the west, and 33rd Street to the north. The Farley Building occupies two full city blocks, an 8-acre (32,000 m ) footprint straddling the tracks of the Northeast Corridor and the Farley Corridor (sub-district B) in western Midtown Manhattan . The building occupies

2184-603: Is derived from Old French poste , which ultimately stems from the past participle of the Latin verb ponere 'to lay down or place'. So in the U.K., the Royal Mail delivers the post , while in North America both the U.S. Postal Service and Canada Post deliver the mail . The term email , short for "electronic mail", first appeared in the 1970s. The term snail mail is a retronym to distinguish it from

2275-924: Is in Egypt , where Pharaohs used couriers to send out decrees throughout the territory of the state (2400 BCE). The earliest surviving piece of mail is also Egyptian, dating to 255 BCE. The first credible claim for the development of a real postal system comes from Ancient Persia . The best-documented claim ( Xenophon ) attributes the invention to the Persian King Cyrus the Great (550 BCE), who mandated that every province in his kingdom would organize reception and delivery of post to each of its citizens. Other writers credit his successor Darius I of Persia (521 BCE). Other sources claim much earlier dates for an Assyrian postal system, with credit given to Hammurabi (1700 BCE) and Sargon II (722 BCE). Mail may not have been

2366-618: Is privatised and subject to competition. James Farley Post Office The James A. Farley Building (formerly Pennsylvania Terminal and the U.S. General Post Office ) is a mixed-use structure in Midtown Manhattan , New York City, which formerly served as the city's main United States Postal Service (USPS) branch. Designed by McKim, Mead & White in the Beaux-Arts style, the structure

2457-511: The Long Island Rail Road 's mail operations were moved from Long Island City to the Penn Station post office. As completed, the Penn Station post office measured 355 feet (108 m) along Eighth Avenue and 332 feet (101 m) along the side streets, with 400,000 square feet (37,000 m ) of interior space. The Times described it as the second largest building in the city behind the original Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal ,

2548-855: The Postal Union at the time of the building's construction: the United States , the United Kingdom , the German Empire , the French Third Republic , the Russian Empire , the Kingdom of Italy , the Kingdom of Spain , Belgium , Austria-Hungary , and the Netherlands . The French Third Republic was represented by the cipher "R.F." for République Française at the time of the Farley Building's opening, as

2639-634: The Postmaster General of the United States . The PRR would construct the tracks and supporting columns under the post office as part of the plan. The site faced opposition from several members of the United States Congress , who expressed concern that the U.S. government would only own "a chunk of space in the air", namely the air rights above the tracks. Concern also stemmed from the planned interior court measuring 100 by 150 feet (30 by 46 m), which could potentially become

2730-475: The U.S. Postal Service authorised the first tests of a secure system of sending digital franks via the Internet to be printed out on a PC printer, obviating the necessity to license a dedicated franking machine and allowing companies with smaller mail programs to make use of the option; this was later expanded to test the use of personalized postage. The service provided by the U.S. Postal Service in 2003 allows

2821-1789: The United Kingdom , Eir in the Republic of Ireland , Swisscom in Switzerland , Telstra in Australia , Spark in New Zealand , Proximus Group in Belgium , A1 Telekom Austria Group in Austria , TDC Group in Denmark , Telia Company in Sweden and Finland , Telenor in Norway , Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan and Singtel in Singapore ; whereas in others, the name of the privatised corporation has been only slightly modified, such as Telkom Indonesia in Indonesia , Telekom Malaysia in Malaysia , Deutsche Telekom in Germany (+ Telekom Romania Mobile in Romania ), Kosovo Telecom in Kosovo , KT in South Korea , Post Luxembourg in Luxembourg and Síminn in Iceland . In countries that had

Mail - Misplaced Pages Continue

2912-593: The Wodeyar dynasty (1399–1947) of the Kingdom of Mysore used mail service for espionage purposes thereby acquiring knowledge related to matters that took place at great distances. By the end of the 18th century, a postal system in India was in operation. Later this system underwent complete modernization when the British Raj established its control over most of India. The Post Office Act XVII of 1837 provided that

3003-491: The 17th century, the word mail began to appear as a reference for a bag that contained letters: "bag full of letter" (1654). Over the next hundred years the word mail began to be applied strictly to the letters themselves and the sack as the mailbag . In the 19th century, the British typically used mail to refer to letters being sent abroad (i.e. on a ship) and post to refer to letters for domestic delivery. The word Post

3094-519: The Farley Building as an event venue. The Moynihan Station Development Corporation awarded a contract to Skylight in September 2012, allowing the latter group to use the building's sorting room and loading area for events. Events staged at the building included fashion shows such as New York Fashion Week , in addition to movie premieres, parties, and product launches. Portions of the James Farley Post Office were adaptively reused and converted to

3185-691: The General Post Office in 1930. The western part of the block would contain an annex to the main facility, as well as a parcel post station called Morgan Station. McKim, Mead & White were rehired for the expansion. In April 1931, the Treasury Department bought the western half of the block from the Pennsylvania Railroad for $ 2.5 million. The building was expanded between 1932 and 1934 under then-Postmaster General James A. Farley . The work involved installing

3276-683: The Governor-General of India in Council had the exclusive right of conveying letters by post for hire within the territories of the East India Company. The mails were available to certain officials without charge, which became a controversial privilege as the years passed. On this basis the Indian Post Office was established on October 1, 1837. The first well-documented postal service was that of Rome . Organized at

3367-571: The Ninth Avenue facade, which were used for truck deliveries. The roof is mostly flat, aside from the pyramidal roofs of the end pavilions. A sill runs above the third story. Until 1994, the fourth story was crowned by an ornate stone cornice . The roof of the building is about 101 feet (31 m) above the curb. The main floor, 22 feet (6.7 m) above ground level, is surrounded by a dry moat , providing light and air to workspaces below. The moats ran along 31st and 33rd Streets and along

3458-403: The Penn Station post office became New York City's general post office. By the early 1920s, the General Post Office had become congested, and a U.S. Congressional report in 1923 recommended that it be expanded westward. The U.S. government announced its intention, in 1927, to buy the plot immediately west of the existing post office building. The Post Office Department announced an expansion of

3549-468: The Penn Station post office was dedicated as the James A. Farley Building, in honor of the former Postmaster General who had expanded the building in the 1930s. Known for being the supreme Democratic Party boss of New York State, Farley was responsible for Franklin D. Roosevelt 's rise to the U.S. presidency. In the early 1990s, U.S. senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan began to champion a plan to rebuild

3640-733: The Post and Wireless Office was renamed the Post Office under the Ministry of Transportation. In 1955, the Post Office was upgraded to the Ministry of Post. Some Chinese sources claim mail or postal systems dating back to the Xia or Shang dynasties , which would be the oldest mailing service in the world. The earliest credible system of couriers was initiated by the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), who had relay stations every 30 li (about 15km) along major routes. The Tang dynasty (618 to 907 AD) operated

3731-564: The Treasury awarded a $ 696,000 contract to O'Driscoll and Grove Inc. for the renovation of the original portion of the structure. The work was to be performed in phases and completed within 300 days. During the 20th century, the General Post Office hosted Christmas tree-lighting events. The building was made a New York City designated landmark in 1966 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. In 1982,

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3822-406: The United States Postal Service's experiment with rocket mail . Receipt services were made available in order to grant the sender a confirmation of effective delivery. Before about the mid-nineteenth century, in regions where postal systems existed, the payment models varied, but most mail was sent unpaid requiring the recipient to pay the postage fee. In some regions a partial payment was made by

3913-435: The United States, postcodes in the United Kingdom and Australia, eircodes in Ireland and postal codes in most other countries) in order to facilitate the automation of operations. This also includes placing additional marks on the address portion of the letter or mailed object, called "bar coding". Bar coding of mail for delivery is usually expressed either by a series of vertical bars, usually called POSTNET coding or

4004-408: The agent usually indicates by means of a cancellation that it is no longer valid for pre-payment of postage. The exceptions are when the agent forgets or neglects to cancel the mailpiece, for stamps that are pre-cancelled and thus do not require cancellation and for, in most cases, metered mail. (The "personalized stamps" authorized by the USPS and manufactured by Zazzle and other companies are in fact

4095-427: The building's completion. The remaining three facades have a similar but simpler design. The James A. Farley Building was known as the Pennsylvania Terminal until 1918, when it was renamed the General Post Office Building. The building was made a New York City designated landmark in 1966 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It was officially renamed in 1982 in honor of James Farley who

4186-423: The building. The Farley Post Office building was sold to the New York state government in 2006 in the hope that Moynihan's vision would be realized. Before the Great Recession in 2009, the Farley Post Office was the only New York City post office that was open 24/7 , but as a result of the recession, its windows started closing at 10:00 p.m. During the 2010s, the event venue operator Skylight Group used

4277-449: The building: a basement 18 feet (5.5 m) below street level, the tracks 50 feet (15 m) deep, and a trucking platform 72 feet (22 m) deep. These connected to the mailing level, which was just above street level. Chutes and conveyor belts connected the levels. Inside the building is Moynihan Train Hall, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). It consists of 255,000 sq ft (23,700 m ) of space underneath

4368-413: The colonnaded front. The floors of the gallery were originally paved in various colors of marble, while the walls were made of buff marble and white plaster, with various windows along both sides. The painted plaster ceiling of the front reception hall is divided into sections of 28 feet (8.5 m) each. Each ceiling section is decorated with carved national emblems or coats of arms of ten members of

4459-512: The conditions for physical mail. Email (and in recent years social networking sites) became a fierce competitor to physical mail systems, but online auctions and Internet shopping opened new business opportunities as people often get items bought online through the mail. Modern mail is organized by national and privatized services, which are reciprocally connected by international regulations, organizations and international agreements. Paper letters and parcels can be sent to almost any country in

4550-430: The corners at Eighth Avenue; they originally featured glass skylights overlooking the tracks. The moats were replaced with concrete slabs by the late 20th century. The moats at the corners at Eighth Avenue were infilled. In 2017, the former moats became entrances to the West End Concourse of Moynihan Train Hall , underneath the Farley Building. Inside the Eighth Avenue entrance is a two-story-tall gallery that parallels

4641-420: The cost was determined by the distance from sender to recipient and the number of sheets of paper rather than by a countrywide flat rate with weight restrictions. Sir Rowland Hill reformed the postal system based on the concepts of penny postage and prepayment. In his proposal, Hill also called for official pre-printed envelopes and adhesive postage stamps as alternative ways of getting the sender to pay for

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4732-444: The enormous funding necessary to rapidly industrialize Japan in the late 19th century. The postal service was one of Korea's first attempts at modernization. The Joseon Post Office was established in 1884. Another important postal service was created in the Islamic world by the caliph Mu'awiyya; the service was called barid , for the name of the towers built to protect the roads by which couriers travelled. By 3000 BC, Egypt

4823-490: The faithful service of the Persian system of mounted postal messengers under Xerxes I of Persia . It was selected by the United States Department of the Treasury in 1912. The inscription is frequently mistaken as the official motto of the United States Postal Service (USPS) and has become known as the United States Postal Service creed . At the tops of the end pavilions, names of various figures have been carved, such as Cardinal Richelieu , who were deemed important to

4914-405: The franks to be printed out on special adhesive-backed labels. In 2004 the Royal Mail in the United Kingdom introduced its SmartStamp Internet-based system, allowing printing on ordinary adhesive labels or envelopes. Similar systems are being considered by postal administrations around the world. When the pre-paid envelope or package is accepted into the mail by an agent of the postal service,

5005-401: The hall's construction. In early 2018, Vornado and Related started considering plans to convert the Farley Building's remaining space that was not being used by the train hall. The developers contemplated marketing the building for use by a biotechnology or pharmaceutical company. In August 2020, Meta Platforms signed a lease for all 730,000 square feet (68,000 m ) of the office space in

5096-408: The history of postal delivery in the Western world. The facades along 31st and 33rd Streets contain colonnades with flat pilasters . These sides are divided into seven sections: a tripartite central pavilion with archways, flanked on either side by a row of pilasters and a square end pavilion. The Ninth Avenue side contains a similar row of flat pilasters. There are three arches at the center of

5187-453: The largest girder in the city's history at the time, a 152-short-ton (136-long-ton; 138 t) girder that stretched 115 feet (35 m) across the railroad tracks. Foundation work was contracted to James Stewart & Co. and was nearly completed by early 1933. The federal government awarded a $ 4.3 million construction contract to James Stewart & Co. in February 1934 after having unsuccessfully advertised for bids on three occasions over

5278-433: The last postmaster, Maximilian Karl, 6th Prince of Thurn and Taxis , into real estate, most of it continuing to exist today. The Phone Book of the World has its roots in the long history of the avant-garde telecommunications family Thurn & Taxis. The directory is the result of Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn & Taxis transmitting PTT culture to a student and helping with the opening of a small Telephone Boutique next to

5369-458: The late 1890s. As part of the planning of Penn Station in the first decade of the 20th century, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) proposed that the United States Post Office Department construct a post office on 8th Avenue, across from the station. In February 1903, the U.S. government accepted the PRR's proposal and made plans to construct what would become the Farley Building. A deed was prepared and submitted in 1905 to George B. Cortelyou ,

5460-425: The mail and packages often surveyed and their contents sometimes edited out (or even in). There have been cases over the millennia of governments opening and copying or photographing the contents of private mail. Subject to the laws in the relevant jurisdiction, correspondence may be openly or covertly opened, or the contents determined via some other method, by the police or other authorities in some cases relating to

5551-497: The mail platform, when the station officially opened on November 27, 1910. A $ 2.5 million contract to build the Post Office was awarded to the George A. Fuller Company in March 1911. By December 1913, the post office was already processing second, third, and fourth class mail. The New York Times characterized the new post office as "not only the largest, but the finest in the world" of its kind. The original monumental structure officially opened on September 5, 1914. With this,

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5642-411: The mail service. Foreign observers, such as Marco Polo , have attested to the efficiency of this early postal system. Each station was maintained by up to twenty five families. Work for postal service counted as military service. The system was still operational in 18th century when 64 stations were required for a message to cross Mongolia from the Altai Mountains to China. The modern Japanese system

5733-438: The main floor. The colonnade is braced at the end by two square pavilions, each capped with a low saucer dome, expressed on the exterior as a low stepped pyramid. An entablature above the colonnade bears the inscription "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds". The sentence is taken from Herodotus ' Histories (Book 8, Ch. 98) and describes

5824-602: The message carrier (called Chapar ) would ride to the next post, whereupon he would swap his horse with a fresh one for maximum performance and delivery speed. Herodotus described the system in this way: "It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day's journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed". The verse prominently features on New York's James Farley Post Office , although it uses

5915-442: The post office incorporating some 165,000 cubic feet (4,700 m ) of pink granite, 18,000 tons of steel, and 7 million bricks. The construction of the Penn Station post office spurred the opening of printing businesses in the vicinity. The post office was known as the Pennsylvania Terminal when it opened; at the time, the city's general post office was still the City Hall Post Office in Lower Manhattan . Effective July 1, 1918,

6006-437: The post office the same year. By then, steelwork for the tracks and platforms was already under construction. The initial appropriation for the post office building was $ 2.5 million, but in April 1910, Congress allocated another $ 1 million for construction. The construction of Pennsylvania Station across the street was progressing more quickly. The as-yet-incomplete Penn Station post office saw its first mail, delivered through

6097-457: The postage, at a time when prepayment was optional, which led to the invention of the postage stamp, the Penny Black . The postal system was important in the development of modern transportation. Railways carried railway post offices . During the 20th century, air mail became the transport of choice for inter-continental mail. Postmen started to use mail trucks . The handling of mail became increasingly automated. The Internet came to change

6188-479: The postal business based in Brussels and in Frankfurt was passed from one generation to another. Following the abolition of the Empire in 1806, the Thurn-und-Taxis Post system continued as a private organization into the postage stamp era before being absorbed into the postal system of the new German Empire after 1871. 1867 July 1 the State of Prussia had to make a compensation payment of 3.000.000 Thalers reinvested by Helene von Thurn & Taxis , daughter-in-law of

6279-510: The previous years. During the construction of the annex, Farley's building supply firm, the General Builders Supply Corporation, had received a federal contract under the Hoover administration to provide building materials. Farley was accused by U.S. senator Huey Long of receiving preferential treatment from the Roosevelt administration , but the Senate cleared him of any wrongdoing, in what would be known as "The Long-Farley Affair of 1935". The annex opened in December 1935. In February 1938,

6370-454: The primary mission of this postal service, however. The role of the system as an intelligence gathering apparatus is well documented, and the service was (later) called angariae , a term that in time came to indicate a tax system. The Old Testament ( Esther , VIII) makes mention of this system: Ahasuerus , king of Medes , used couriers for communicating his decisions. The Persian system worked using stations (called Chapar-Khaneh ), whence

6461-408: The public. Common chariots called Dagana were sometimes used as mail chariots in ancient India. Couriers were used militarily by kings and local rulers to deliver information through runners and other carriers. The postmaster, the head of the intelligence service, was responsible for ensuring the maintenance of the courier system. Couriers were also used to deliver personal letters. In South India ,

6552-425: The quicker email. Various dates have been given for its first use. The practice of communication by written documents carried by an intermediary from one person or place to another almost certainly dates back nearly to the invention of writing . However, the development of formal postal systems occurred much later. The first documented use of an organized courier service for the dissemination of written documents

6643-638: The recording of identities of sender and recipient. The privacy of correspondence is guaranteed by the constitutions of Mexico , Colombia , Brazil and Venezuela , and is alluded to in the European Convention on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . The control of the contents inside private citizens' mail is censorship and concerns social, political, and legal aspects of civil rights . International mail and packages are subject to customs control, with

6734-482: The republic lacked an official national emblem . Elevators led from the Farley Building to most of Penn Station's platforms. By the end of the 20th century, only the elevator to track 12 was used to deliver mail. In addition, six siding tracks extend west from Penn Station underneath the Farley Building. At the time of the original Penn Station's completion in 1910, these tracks could fit 26 mail cars. There were three subsurface levels provided for mail transport within

6825-583: The rules for international mail exchanges as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations . The word mail comes from the Middle English word male , referring to a travelling bag or pack. It was spelled in that manner until the 17th century and is distinct from the word male . The French have a similar word, malle , for a trunk or large box, and mála is the Irish term for a bag. In

6916-435: The sender. Today, worldwide, the most common method of prepaying postage is by buying an adhesive postage stamp to be applied to the envelope before mailing; a much less common method is to use a postage-prepaid envelope . Franking is a method of creating postage-prepaid envelopes under licence using a special machine. They are used by companies with large mail programs, such as banks and direct mail companies. In 1998,

7007-431: The time of Augustus Caesar (62 BCE – 14 CE), the service was called cursus publicus and was provided with light carriages ( rhedæ ) pulled by fast horses. By the time of Diocletian , a parallel service was established with two-wheeled carts ( birotæ ) pulled by oxen . This service was reserved for government correspondence. Yet another service for citizens was later added. In 1802, the first Vietnamese postal service

7098-480: The translation "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds". The economic growth and political stability under the Mauryan Empire (322–185 BCE) stimulated sustained development of civil infrastructure in ancient India . The Mauryans developed early Indian mail service as well as public wells, rest houses, and other facilities for

7189-661: The transmission and delivery of official mail but were also available for travelling officials, military men, and foreign dignitaries. These stations aided and facilitated the transport of foreign and domestic tribute specifically and the conduct of trade in general. By the end of Kublai Khan's rule, there were more than 1400 postal stations in China alone, which in turn had at their disposal about 50,000 horses, 1,400 oxen, 6,700 mules, 400 carts, 6,000 boats, more than 200 dogs, and 1,150 sheep. The stations were 25 to 65 km (16 to 40 mi) apart and had reliable attendants working for

7280-558: The whole territory of his empire the system used by Franks in northern Gaul and connected this service with that of missi dominici . In the mid-11th century, flax traders known as the Cairo Geniza Merchants from Fustat , Egypt wrote about using a postal service known as the kutubi. The kutubi system managed routes between the cities of Jerusalem, Ramla, Tyre, Ascalon, Damascus, Aleppo, and Fustat with year-round, regular mail delivery. Many religious orders had

7371-487: The world relatively easily and cheaply. The Internet has made the process of sending letter-like messages nearly instantaneous, and in many cases and situations correspondents use email where they previously would have used letters. The volume of paper mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service has declined by more than 15% since its peak at 213 billion pieces per annum in 2006. Some countries have organized their mail services as public limited liability corporations without

7462-409: Was built between 1911 and 1914, with an annex constructed between 1932 and 1935. The Farley Building, at 421 Eighth Avenue between 31st Street and 33rd Street in Midtown Manhattan , faces Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden to the east. The main facade of the Farley Building (over 8th Avenue) features a Corinthian colonnade finishing at a pavilion on each end. The imposing design

7553-492: Was conceived as a Corinthian colonnade , composed of twenty 53-foot-tall (16 m) columns. The imposing design was meant to match the strength of the colonnade of McKim, Mead, and White's original Pennsylvania Station across Eighth Avenue, which originally faced the General Post Office Building. A flight of 31 steps, extending across the full length of the colonnade, provides access from the street to

7644-398: Was designed by the firm of McKim, Mead & White , who also designed the adjacent original Pennsylvania Station in the same Beaux-Arts style . William Mitchell Kendall was the lead architect on the design. The firm also designed the annex. The four-story structure consists of granite ashlar cladding around a steel-frame superstructure. The monumental facade on Eighth Avenue

7735-477: Was developed in the mid-19th century, closely copying European models. Japan was highly innovative in developing the world's largest and most successful postal savings system and later a postal life insurance system as well. Postmasters play a key role in linking the Japanese political system to local politics. The postmasters are high prestige, and are often hereditary. To a large extent, the postal system generated

7826-590: Was established under the Nguyen dynasty , under the Ministry of Rites. During the Nguyen dynasty, official documents were transported by horse and other primitive means to stations built about 25-30 kilometers apart. In 1904, three wireless communication offices were established, and in early 1906 they were merged with the postal service to form the Post and Wireless Office. In 1945, after the August Revolution,

7917-730: Was instrumental to maintaining service levels in the New York metropolitan area following the September 11 attacks in 2001, when it served as a backup to operations for the Church Street Station Post Office opposite the World Trade Center complex. By October 2002, the New York state government had arranged to buy the Farley Building from the USPS for $ 230 million, with the USPS vacating much of

8008-399: Was meant to match that of the original Pennsylvania Station across the street. An entablature above the colonnade bears the United States Postal Service creed : "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." The colonnade's inner ceiling is decorated with the crests or emblems of ten major nations that existed at

8099-495: Was the nation's 53rd postmaster general and served from 1933 to 1940. The building was sold to the New York government in 2006. The interior space that once housed the main mail sorting room now houses the Moynihan Train Hall since 2021. Office space in the building was leased to Meta in 2020. The building fronts on the west side of Eighth Avenue, across from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden . It

8190-592: Was the system linking the international settlements, centered around Shanghai and the Treaty ports. It was the main communication system for China's international trade. Genghis Khan installed an empire-wide messenger and postal station system named Örtöö within the Mongol Empire . During the Yuan dynasty under Kublai Khan , this system also covered the territory of China. Postal stations were used not only for

8281-437: Was using homing pigeons for pigeon post , taking advantage of a singular quality of this bird, which when taken far from its nest is able to find its way home due to a particularly developed sense of orientation. Messages were then tied around the legs of the pigeon, which was freed and could reach its original nest. By the 19th century, homing pigeons were used extensively for military communications. Charlemagne extended to

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