The cathedral completed in 1878 after a Civil War halt

The plot started with a bit of a mess. In 1810, the Rev. Father Anthony Kohlmann bought the land on which the present cathedral stands. The site was bounded by what is now Fifth Avenue on the west, 51st Street on the north, Madison Avenue to the east, and 50th Street on the south. In 1813, the Jesuits sold the lot to the Diocese of New York. A group of Trappist monks who were fleeing persecution by French authorities fled to this spot in 1814. They spent their time looking after orphans until the downfall of Napoleon, when the Trappists returned to France in 1815.

By the mid-1800s, the Catholic population in New York was growing. To replace St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, the diocese hired James Renwick Jr. to build something massive. They started in 1858, but work was halted in the early 1860s during the American Civil War. Construction stopped during this period of conflict before resuming to complete the structure.

Work finally resumed, and the building reached completion in 1878. It took another few years to get the spires up in 1888 and even longer to pay off the debt. They didn't officially consecrate the place until October 5, 1910. It is the largest Gothic Revival Catholic cathedral in North America, measuring 332 feet long and clad in marble.

Today, you can see the bronze doors on Fifth Avenue and the northern tower with its nineteen bells. It sits across from Rockefeller Center. It has undergone extensive restorations in the 1940s, 1970s, and 2010s to stay standing.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons