Riverside Park Landscaping
Riverside Park Landscaping
Description
Researcher Frank da Cruz explains here that a major part of the New Deal creation of what is now Riverside Park involved completely re-shaping the land itself. The park was re-engineered from its natural rather steep slope “into two relatively flat areas separated by a retaining wall… The train tracks run behind the retaining wall and under the upper level of the park. The lower level…is on the same level as the river and contains a vast amount of parkland and numerous ball fields, athletic fields, game courts, and playgrounds.” In addition to shaping the land itself, New Deal workers also built “rip-rap walls” of rocks along the riverbank at many points to prevent erosion. As da Cruz says here, all this “was an almost inconceivably massive earth-moving and construction project that required four years and unknown thousands of workers.”
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Riverside Park, c. 1925
Riverside Park, c. 1925
Riverside Park, c. 1925
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Riverside Park, Lower Level
Riverside Park, Lower Level
Riverside Park, Lower Level
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Riverside Park, Retaining Wall
Riverside Park, Retaining Wall
Riverside Park, Retaining Wall
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Riverside Park, “Rip-rap” Shoreline
Riverside Park, "Rip-rap" Shoreline
Riverside Park, "Rip-rap" Shoreline
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Train Tunnel in Riverside Park
Train Tunnel in Riverside Park
Train Tunnel in Riverside Park
Source notes
http://kermitproject.org/newdeal/riversidepark/riverside2.html http://kermitproject.org/newdeal/riversidepark/riverside69.html http://kermitproject.org/newdeal/riversidepark/riverside1925.html
Project originally submitted by Frank da Cruz on August 6, 2015.
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