New York is very proud of its great pleasure-ground, the Central Park,
upon which has been lavished all that art and money could accomplish.
This Park is a parallelogram in the centre of Manhattan Island, a
half-mile wide and two and a half miles long, covering eight hundred
and forty-three acres, though nearly one-fourth of this space is
occupied by the Croton water reservoirs. The original surface was
either marsh or rock, very rough, and with topography generally the
reverse of that needed for a park. It took prodigious labor and an
enormous outlay to overcome the difficulties, but skillful engineering
and landscape gardening have made the most of the unsightly surface,
so that it has become one of the handsomest parks in the world, its
beauties increasing as the growing trees mature. Entering at the
"Scholar's Gate" from Fifth Avenue, the road within the Park leads by
a gently winding course past vista views and pretty lakes to the Mall,
or general promenade. Here, on pleasant days, thousands gather to
listen to the music. To the westward are broad green surfaces giving a
tranquil landscape, and looking northward through the avenue of elms
upon the Mall, a little gray stone tower called the Observatory closes
the view far away over another pretty lake. At the end of the Mall a
terrace is crossed bordering this lake, the ground sloping to its
edges. Here a fountain plashes on one side, and on the other is the
concert ground, overlooked by the Pergola, a shaded Gallery. Across
the lake, on the Observatory side, is the Ramble, a rocky,
forest-covered slope with paths winding through it, and on the highest
point a massive Belvedere. There are a menagerie and an aviary, and
the children have playgrounds and varied amusements. Beyond this
enchanting region the road winds past statues and ever-changing
beauties of garden and landscape, and comes out in a space alongside
the smaller reservoir, where stands Cleopatra's Needle, brought from
Egypt and set up near the Museum of Art. Then the road passes
alongside the larger reservoir, with barely enough room to get through
between it and Fifth Avenue, though both are admirably masked. The
northern portion of the Park has greater natural attractions and less
ornamentation, the land ascending to a fine lookout on the western
side, where there is a grand view over the Harlem River, displaying
the tall arches of the "High Bridge" bringing the Croton Aqueduct
across, and the tower alongside, which makes a high level reservoir.
The expanding city, however, is extending its buildings over large
surfaces north and west of the Park.
One Hundred and Tenth Street is the northern boundary of Central Park.
Upon the western side of the Park, in Manhattan Square, is being
gradually constructed the American Museum of Natural History, with
elaborate buildings and collections already exceeding $3,000,000 in
value. Near the northwestern corner of the Park, extending to One
Hundred and Twenty-third Street, is the long and narrow Morningside
Park, a high elevation held by massive retaining walls on the
hill-slope, and ascended by flights of steps. Morningside Avenue, its
western boundary, has at One Hundred and Twelfth Street what will be
the largest ecclesiastical edifice in the United States, the new
Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, of which the corner-stone
was laid in 1892, and building slowly progresses. The splendid St.
Luke's Hospital adjoins to the northward, while to the northwest, on
an elevated site overlooking the Hudson River, are the fine new
buildings of Columbia College in an enclosure of about twenty acres.
This great University has buildings and collections valued at
$7,000,000, an endowment of $12,000,000, and is attended by about two
thousand students. Farther westward, upon the high ground at the edge
of the Hudson River, stretches the stately Riverside Park for about
three miles, making a magnificent drive, along which many handsome
residences are being constructed. Near its northern end is the tomb of
General Grant, a white granite mausoleum ninety feet square and
surmounted by a cupola, which was finished in 1897 and cost $600,000.
The interior arrangement is like Napoleon's tomb in Paris, the body,
contained in a red porphyry sarcophagus, being placed in an open crypt
below the centre of the dome. Beyond Central Park, the broad public
roads known as the Boulevards traverse the island northward, and many
elaborate structures are being erected along them.