Riverside Park Reconstruction – New York NY

Riverside Park and Henry Hudson Parkway, 1937

Riverside Park and Henry Hudson Parkway, 1937

Riverside Park

Riverside Park

Riverside Park in Springtime

Upper Riverside Park

In the 160s where the path is right at the water's edge and there is a bit of beach. Centuries ago these shores were thick with clams and oysters.

Upper Riverside Park

Approaching the GW bridge, the Little Red Lighthouse peeking out below between the trees.

Upper Riverside Park

Upper Riverside Park

The view towards New Jersey just under the bridge, with an interesting trick of light and shadow in the mist over the water.

Riverside Park

Riverside Park at 72nd Street, upper level.

Riverside Park Steps

Riverside Park at 72nd Street, concrete steps connecting lower and upper levels.

Riverside Park Promenade

Riverside Park, the promenade along the river looking south towards 72nd Street. This promenade is nearly six miles long. There were a few gaps in the original but they have been filled in recent decades, and it also has been extended to the south.

Riverside Park Promenade

Riverside Park, the promenade along the river looking south towards 72nd Street and beyond it to the few remaining piers on Manhattan's West Side. The dark object is a gantry crane and transfer bridge at 69th, built in 1911, left over from the old railroad days, for transferring boxcars to and from river barges. It was left in place as a kind of memorial to the West Side's industrial, shipping, railroading past.

Riverside Park, Concrete Bleachers

Riverside Park at 72nd Street, lower level: a 400-meter cinder running track with concrete bleachers, little changed from when it was first built in 1937. You can see the Hudson River through the trees, and beyond it, New Jersey.

Riverside Park, Comfort Station

Second of two comfort stations at 76th Street, lower level of Riverside Park, on the promenade along the Hudson River.

Riverside Park, Comfort Station

Riverside Park at 72nd Street

The New Deal West Side Improvement Project transformed Riverside Park from a steep slope into two relatively flat areas separated by a retaining wall (seen here at lower left). The train tracks run behind the retaining wall and under the upper level of the park. The lower level, seen here, is on the same level as the river and contains vast amount of parkland and numerous ball fields, athletic fields, game courts, and playgrounds. It is, however, separated from the river by the Henry Hudson Parkway, but access is provided to the river bank by passages under the highway every 10 blocks or so.

Hudson River Promenade

Hudson River promenade in Riverside Park, looking north 81st Street towards the Columbia University medical center (which changes its name about once a week) and the George Washington Bridge. The greenery by the bridge is still the park, exactly five miles north of this spot.

Henry Hudson Parkway, Pedestrian Underpass

Henry Hudson Parkway pedestrian underpass in Riverside Park at 81st Street. The stone wall straight ahead is the retaining wall for the upper park. Behind the wall: the Amtrak corridor. Everything in the picture except the construction equipment and chain link fence is New Deal: The Henry Hudson Parkway, the path, the fences, the retaining wall, even the larger trees.

Riverside Park, Community Flower Garden

Community flower garden at 92nd Street at the head of the South Mall.

Riverside Park Benches

Riverside Park, upper level, South Mall. I can't be sure of this, but it's possible the benches are original WPA ones, but with new slats. I've seen photos from the 1930s in which the benches look exactly like this, with their concrete uprights. Concrete was the absolute favorite building material of the WPA.

Riverside Park Steps

Riverside Park, steps going from the upper park level up to street level. Riverside park is full of stairs like this, as well as paths, walls, and other features to make it navigable and to keep its shape.

Riverside Drive Overpass

Riverside Drive overpass at 96th Street. This is another of Moses' Grade Crossing Eliminations, because before the Henry Hudson Parkway was built, 96th Street didn't have any reason to go across Riverside Drive. Plus, the bridge is made made of concrete (the WPA's favorite building material).

Riverside Park, North Mall

The North Mall, that goes 101st to 110th Street. The wall at left looks out over the ball fields and the river.

Riverside Park Greenery

Riverside Park, upper level at 116th Street seen from street level.

Hudson River Overlook, 116th St.

Riverside Park, lower level: Hudson River overlook at 116th Street. Broken range work masonry retaining wall with quadruple arcade with granite voussoirs covering railroad tracks. This area has been blocked off for decades, everything here is exactly as the WPA made it, including the light pole.

Riverside Park Staircase

Riverside Park at 148th Street. Behind Palisades Playground is this grand staircase to the lower park, some ballfields, and the Hudson River shoreline, passing over the railroad tracks and under the Henry Hudson Parkway. I believe the original destination was the 148th Street Boat Basin, which was never constructed because World War II came along and changed a lot of plans. So intead, at the last minute, just as the War was about to start, the boat basin site was converted into an “overlook sitting area on the shore of the Hudson River adjacent to the promenade in Riverside Park Extension opposite West 149 and West 150 Streets”[4]. Little remains of this overlook today.

Riverside Park Staircase Closeup

Stone and concrete work behind the Palisades Playground at 148th Street.

Riverside Park and George Washington Bridge

Riverside Park at 150th Street in 2012, looking north along the riverbank promenade. Just ahead, the elevated Henry Hudson Parkway. As of 2012, the stretch from here to the George Washington Bridge (seen in the distance) is little changed from how the WPA left it at the end of the 1930s.

Riverside Park and George Washington Bridge

View from 145th Street towards the George Washington Bridge. All the green from the lighthouse to the right is also Riverside Park, though at these latitudes it's called Fort Washington Park, and then past Dyckman Street, Inwood Hill Park, but it's really all one continuous park.

Riverside Park Promenade

Fort Washington Park, as Riverside Park is called above 155th Street, looking north along the riverbank promenade in 2012. On the left, one of the few sand beaches in Manhattan! A very small one to be sure.