<P> In March 1915, Italian anarchists, Frank Abarno, and Carmine Carbone were arrested for attempting to detonate a bomb in the cathedral . Arbarno and Carbone were under the influence of Luigi Galleani . Abarno was in St. Patrick's ready to light the bomb fuse when Amedeo Polignani, a New York City police detective, who had gone undercover to infiltrate the group, intervened . Polignani had been operating under the direction of the head of the bomb squad, Thomas Tunney . Arbano was arrested at the scene and Carbone was arrested at his home . The two defendants claimed entrapment, but were nonetheless convicted and given sentences of between 6 and 12 years . </P> <P> In the 1950s, starting in January 1951, a letter threatened that a bomb would be set off at a Sunday mass, and there would be five more threats between December 1951 and July 1952 . On July 12, a voice over the telephone warned "your beautiful cathedral will be blown up before midnight ." </P> <P> St. Patrick's Cathedral is the largest decorated Neo-Gothic - style Catholic cathedral in North America . The cathedral, which can accommodate 3,000 people, is built of brick clad in marble, quarried in Massachusetts and New York . The main block of the cathedral is made of Tuckahoe marble . It takes up a whole city block, between 50th and 51st streets, Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue . At the transepts it is 174 feet (53.0 meters) wide and 332 feet (101.2 meters) long . The spires rise 330 feet (100.6 meters) from street level . The slate for the roof came from Monson, Maine . </P> <P> The windows were made by artists in Boston, Massachusetts, and European artists from Chartres, France, and Birmingham, England . Charles Connick created the rose window . </P>

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