This postcard, dated 1910, depicts then-new Riverside Drive just past Grant’s Tomb (also new, dedicated in 1897) at 122nd Street.
Frederick Law Olmsted, who conceptualized Riverside Park and Drive, envisioned rocky outcroppings and winding curves that mimicked the Hudson Valley:
“From 1875 to 1910, architects and horticulturalists such as Calvert Vaux and Samuel Parsons laid out the stretch of park between 72nd and 125th Streets according to the English gardening ideal, creating the appearance that the Park was an extension of the Hudson River Valley,” according to the Riverside Park Fund.
Tags: Calvert Vaux, Frederick Law Olmsted, Grant's Tomb, Hudson River, Manhattan Valley, Manhattanville, New York at the turn of the century, Riverside Drive, Riverside Drive Viaduct, Samuel Parsons
Ephemeral New York 
June 9, 2012 at 9:23 pm |
Hi, about Olmsted and Grant´s Tomb, I need to consult to my research letters he wrote about the Tomb, to John Daniel Crimmins, in 1885. I can not explore them on site (Library of Congress) because I live very far from there; so, if someone has a copy or knows where to consult them on line, I would be very grateful. Thanks, Andrea
November 15, 2021 at 12:17 am |
[…] than running straight up and down, Riverside winds along its namesake park, breaking off into slender carriage roads high above the Hudson River. (We have Central Park […]