Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/591

NEW YORK. Park, between Seventieth and Seventy-first streets. Farther up Fifth Avenue at One Hundredth Street is the new Mount Sinai Hospital, one of the largest and most perfectly appointed in the country. At 123d Street and Riverside Drive is the tomb of General Grant, a mausoleum in classic style, covering an area about 100 feet square and rising 100 feet from the ground. It stands upon a bluff overlooking the Hudson. The cornerstone was laid in 1892 and the building was dedicated on April 27, 1897. The bodies of General Grant and his wife lie in twin granite sarcophagi in the crypt under the dome. Farther north, in the Borough of the Bronx, are the handsome library and other buildings of New York University. The first proposal to make a public park for New York was about the beginning of the last century. In 1802 some citizens advocated the setting aside for this purpose of twenty acres around the Collect Pond, a sheet of water situated where the Tombs prison now stands, which was used in summer for boating and in winter for skating. The scheme was rejected, on the ground that the proposed park would be too far from the city. Washington Square, at the beginning of the century the Potter's Field, was redeemed about 1840, and a little later Union Square and Madison Square were cleared of squatters and laid out as parks. It was William Cullen Bryant who first proposed to make a large public park in the upper part of the city. In 1840 he suggested the appropriation of a strip of land known as the Goose Pasture at Sixtieth Street. His plan was to take a section running across the island from river to river. A strip of land was finally appropriated for a public park, but running north and south instead of east and west. Work was begun in 1857. Central Park is now one of the most beautiful pleasure-grounds in the world. It contains 840 acres. About 400 acres are wooded, this area including specimens of nearly every tree and shrub that can be made to grow here. There are nine miles of drives, with thirty miles of foot-paths and other roads; many bridges, archways, and tunnels; several lakes; a large reservoir a mile and a half in circuit; an imposing mall, lined with superb trees; and a large number of statues. Zoölogical and botanical gardens are also among its attractions. On fine days in summer from fifty to sixty thousand persons visit the park. Lawns are provided for free tennis courts, and there is a field for baseball and other games. One of the chief curiosities of Central Park is the Obelisk (see and ) presented to the city by the late Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, which was brought here in 1880.

In Central Park are an equestrian statue of Simon Bolivar, the gift of Venezuela; a bronze statue of Burns, presented by resident Scotchmen; a granite statue of Alexander Hamilton; a life-size bronze statue of Morse, erected in 1871 by the telegraphers of the country; a bronze statue of Sir Walter Scott by John Steele; a bronze statue of Shakespeare by J. Q. A. Ward, unveiled on May 23, 1872, commemorating the poet's birth over 300 years previous; a bronze statue called “The Pilgrim,” by Ward, commemorating the landing of the Pilgrims in 1620; an heroic bronze statue of Daniel Webster, by Thomas Ball; and busts of Beethoven, Cervantes, Humboldt,

Schiller, and Thomas Moore. At the entrance to the park at Fifty-ninth Street and Eighth Avenue stands a marble monument to Columbus, a shaft surmounted by a statue, unveiled in 1892. At the Sixth Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street entrance is a bronze statue of Thorwaldsen, erected in 1894 by the Danes of New York. On the Plaza at Fifth Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street is an imposing equestrian statue of General Sherman by Augustus Saint Gaudens. Opposite the Lenox Library, at Seventieth Street and Fifth Avenue, is a memorial to Richard M. Hunt, the architect, consisting of a semicircular bench with a bronze bust of Hunt, by French, and ornamental figures. The most notable statues in other parts of the city are the bronze figure of Peter Cooper, south of the Cooper Union, by Saint Gaudens; the bronze statue of John Ericsson, by J. Scott Hartley, at the Battery; the statue of Farragut, by Saint Gaudens, in Madison Square Park; the bronze statue of Garibaldi, in Washington Square, by Turini, presented to the city by the Italian residents; the colossal bronze statue of Horace Greeley, in Greeley Square, by Alexander Doyle; the bronze statue of Lafayette, by Bartholdi, in Union Square, presented by French residents in 1876; the bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, in Union Square, modeled by H. K. Browne, and erected by popular subscription in 1867; the equestrian statue of Washington, in Union Square, also by Browne; and the colossal bronze figure of Washington, by J. Q. A. Ward, at the entrance of the Sub-Treasury in Wall Street.

The most important park of the city after Central Park is Brooklyn's pleasure-ground, Prospect Park. (For description, see .) The third in interest is Bronx Park, which includes an area of 661 acres on both sides of the Bronx River. It has superb botanical and zoölogical gardens, opened to the public in 1899. Van Cortlandt Park, north of Kingsbridge, is even larger in extent (1132 acres), but is as yet largely undeveloped. The old Van Cortlandt mansion here, erected in 1784, now serves as an historical museum. There are golf links, grounds for baseball, tennis, and polo, and a lake frequented in winter by thousands of skaters. Pelham Bay Park, on the Sound, near Baychester, is the largest of the New York City parks, containing 1756 acres. It is diversified by lakes and islands, and has a shore line of nine miles. These three suburban parks, the Bronx, Van Cortlandt, and Pelham, are connected by a driveway, maintained by the Park Department. On Manhattan Island millions of dollars have been spent in reclaiming and beautifying the strip of land along the edge of the Hudson River from Seventy-second Street to 130th Street, known as Riverside Park, and since 1901 a handsome viaduct and driveway across Manhattan Valley connects the Park with the northern heights, Morningside Park, the bluff at Columbus Avenue, between 110th and 123d Streets, has also been laid out with excellent taste. The Harlem River Speedway, extending for two miles along the western bank of the river from 155th Street to 208th Street, was completed in 1898. Above Manhattan Island are Crotona and Claremont Parks, in the vicinity of Tremont, and Saint Mary's Park (28 acres) at 149th Street. There are many squares and small parks throughout the city. The playgrounds and recreation piers, of which