Cleopatra's Needle An Account of the Negotiations

Excerpt from Cleopatra's Needle: An Account of the Negotiations Leading Up to Its Gift to the City of New York by the Khedive of Egypt, Its Removal and Its History and Inscriptions Reprinted From "Egypt and Its Betrayal"

The idea of securing an obelisk for the City of New York had its origin in 1877. It grew out of the newspaper reports of the work, then in progress, of transporting an obelisk from Alex andria to London. Paris had such a monument already. London was to have one. Why should not New York, the great city of the New World, be equally favored?