Riverside Park South

It's been quite some time since we visited Riverside Park for this blog, and we never actually hit the section called Riverside Park South. It has been developed quite a bit in recent years anyway, in parallel with neighborhoods on Midtown's western fringe.

Hudson River Park hits its northernmost border at 59th Street or thereabouts. Walk past the huge Sanitation Department pier at 59th and you enter Riverside Park South.

Looking south at the sanitation pier

Several blocks further north, Mrs. Odyssey takes a break.

Looking north along Riverside Park South
Looking north along Riverside Park South

Public art stands out in this landscape, including two new sculptures.

"Life Dance" by Susan Markowitz Meredith

The next photo, of Helen Draves' Hope, doesn't do the ugly thing full justice because you can't see the birds evolving from the small surgical masks that comprise the monstrous giant surgical mask. (There's a better photo at the link in the previous paragraph.) Not surprisingly, the piece is a reflection on the pandemic.

"Hope" by Helen Draves

The most striking piece of public art here is Private Passage, a giant wine bottle laid on its side. Inside is a representation of a stateroom from the Queen Mary.

In the background you can see the equally striking, pyramidal Via 57 West development.

Generally speaking, though, I find the hand of humankind can't match the aesthetic splendor of nature. (Not that this gigantic willow tree wasn't planted by human hands, but you get the point.)

Another majestic willow view shows another side of the conundrum that is New York City today. In this shot you see evidence of the terrible homeless problem we're experiencing in the era of Mayor Eric Adams and the migrant crisis.

On a more positive note, I love when waterfront designers build walkways over the river.

This one reminds me of West Harlem Piers Park, further north along the very same riverside.

But then, as everywhere along the more than 500 miles (!) of New York City waterfront, we also see remains of what went before.

Something else that went before – and now has come to a complete stop – is a retired 60-year-old locomotive, the focus of a play area within the park. It's being refurbished and almost completely obscured at present, so I have no photo, but you can have a peek via Atlas Obscura.

And so Mrs. Odyssey and friends say goodbye for now from from Riverside Park South.

All photos © Oren Hope

Joan of Arc Park

Big parks can hide many surprises, and sometimes those surprises are other parks. Riverside Park stretches for miles along the Hudson River, and while I've visited it for this project more than once (here and here), somehow I was sure it had secrets I hadn't discovered. Sure enough, a look at Google Maps turned up Joan of Arc Park, a tree-cloaked Riverside Drive median between 91st and 95th Streets.

Beginning near the northern tip is a dirt path. Finding a dirt path in the city is always a cause for celebration.

A kind of annex to Riverside Park, Joan of Arc Park is named for its equestrian statue of the martyred saint.

You need binoculars or a zoom lens to get a good look at Joan's face, which is beautiful and reflects her extreme youth as well as her idealism.

Sculptor Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (1876–1973) put a lot of thought and work into the sculpture. She had her niece pose on a barrel for the figure, researched the armor at the Metropolitan Museum, modeled the horse after a real one, and so forth. The base, designed by John van Pelt, includes "a few limestone blocks from the tower in Rouen where Joan of Arc had been imprisoned," according to the Parks Department web page about the monument, which has much more information about the artist and the work.

South of the statue, the park's widening space offers still more relief for pavement-sore feet.

This sliver of green may have been "secret" from me, but of course it isn't from the locals. A number of people were sitting around the statue on the weekday afternoon when I walked through. Others came in as I neared the southern exit. This man and his dog seemed very happy to be here, and why not?

Riverside Park (North) and Grant's Tomb

I don't know if Riverside Park is the longest park in New York City, but it sure feels like it. I chronicled the southern section in an earlier post; my recent visit to Riverbank State Park provided a good chance to also explore the northern section of Riverside, where the first thing I spotted was this funny little house. Anyone know what it is?

The northern section of Riverside Park bucks back and forth between grit (tracks, for example) and green (like a curiously arched trunk of a plane tree).

You're never more than steps from the streets…

…but on the other side you'll find a number of opportunities to descend into…madness?

Walk south over this long, bleak stretch, which provides a great view of the big red electronic Fairway sign that's dangerously distracting to West Side Highway drivers…

…and your surroundings will eventually return to something resembling "park." An inviting detour led me to an ambiguous non-invitation:

But how can you not want to go through an inviting archway like this?

As you approach Grant's Tomb, the spaces open wider, with undulating stairways, stretches of grass, and even chess tables.

And there it is: Grant's Tomb, where Ulysses S. Grant and his wife lie in large wooden sarcophagi beneath a grand dome. The mausoleum's exterior is modeled after Mausoleus's tomb (that's where they get the word, in fact) in the ancient Greek city of Halicarnassus in Turkey. The memorial inside focusses on Grant's Civil War career rather than his later, less successful Presidency. A ranger/guide will answer your questions, or you can just wander the dark space, which contains very little actually: a map showing the sites of Grant's Civil War actions, banners of various companies that served under him, and on the lower level, circling the sarcophagi themselves, busts of other generals. Surrounding the grounds are whimsical benches designed by Pedro P Silva, an artist inspired by Antoni Gaudí.

Note: I've updated this post in reference to the comment below about the church in the photo.

Riverside Park

Riverside Park: a superb spot for a summer sunset.



The jutting hump of grey schist in the photo above might look more like ice than rock, but it's part of the unchanging topography of this long, thin park, which stretches for some four miles along the Hudson River from West 59th Street all the way north past Grant's Tomb along the western fringe of Harlem.

This view north along the bike path shows the George Washington Bridge in the distance. (For a view of the bridge from the opposite direction—the distant north—check out Wave Hill.)



A pretty sunset with boats is always nice:



But it isn't in too many places where you can get tunnel vision like this at the very same time:



All these pictures come from a section of the park just north of the 79th Street Boat Basin (which explains the sailboats at rest above). But Frederick Law Olmstead, the mastermind of Central Park and Prospect Park, was involved in the original design of Riverside Park, which now extends over 266 acres, and there's plenty of this kind of scenery as well:



It was nice to have a reason to visit Riverside Park (a friend's birthday party) besides biking through, which is how I normally see it. It's a favorite treasure for thousands of Manhattan west siders, and New Yorkers of all ages.



And the flowering plants are sweetly colorful in spring and summer.







Of course, it would take a number of visits to fully explore Riverside Park. Miles to go before I sleep... UPDATE: Click here for a visit to the northern section of Riverside Park, which includes Grant's Tomb.