- City:
- Bronx, New York, NY
- Site Type:
- Parks and Recreation, Infrastructure and Utilities, Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Work Relief Programs, Public Works Administration (PWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civil Works Administration (CWA)
- Started:
- 1934
- Completed:
- 1937
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The Henry Hudson Parkway runs along the Hudson River from West 72nd Street to the Bronx-Westchester border and includes the Henry Hudson Bridge, which connects Manhattan with the Bronx. The Parkway was part and parcel of the West Side Improvement project of 1934-37, which included the reconstruction of Riverside Park. The Parkway and Riverside Park were financed and built together, as noted here by researcher Frank da Cruz.
Part of its route also runs through Van Cortlandt Park, as described here: “Moses chose to run the new parkway through Van Cortlandt Park because it was already city property. To run it outside of the park would have required condemning and buying up vast amounts of privately owned land.”
Financing from the parkway came from a range of sources: “In brief, about 62% of the West Side Improvement funding was federal, 34% state and city, and only 4% private, and [Moses] had tens of thousands of work-relief laborers on hand for construction” (kermitproject.org).
More specifically, sources of funding for the project are listed here as including:
- Funds from PWA (Public Works Administration) for the “79th Street Grade Crossing Elimination Structure,” including marina, restaurant, underground parking facility and ornamentation: $5.1 million
- Federal highway funds (for the link between the West Side Highway and the George Washington Bridge): $12 million
- Funds from CWA (Civil Works Administration) for Riverside Park and “park access road” (the parkway was classified as a “park access road,” since the CWA could not specifically build highways): $30 million
Source notes
https://kermitproject.org/newdeal/riversidepark/hudson1.html https://www.nycroads.com/roads/henry-hudson/ https://kermitproject.org/newdeal/vancortlandt/vcparkhenryhudson6.htmlSite originally submitted by Frank da Cruz on November 12, 2012.
At this Location:
At this Location:
- Riverside Park: Grant's Tomb Improvements - New York NY
- Riverside Park: Grant's Tomb Sculptures - New York NY
- Riverside Park Reconstruction - New York NY
- Riverside Park: 79th Street Boat Basin - New York NY
- Riverside Park: Joan of Arc Statue Restoration - New York NY
- Riverside Park: Firemen's Memorial Restoration - New York NY
- Riverside Park: 106th St. Overlook Cafe - New York NY
- Riverside Park: Playgrounds - New York NY
- Riverside Park: Athletic Fields - New York NY
- Riverside Park: Landscaping - New York NY
At this Location:
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Submit More Information or Photographs for this New Deal Site
On this page:
https://www.nycgovparks.org/photo/photo-15232/Construction-laborers#more_text
You’ll find a photo of Riverside Park construction from 1934, with proper credit to WPA. At the far left you can see Grant’s Tomb and Riverside Church.