Riverside Drive is a scenic winding tree-laden street that goes from midtown Manhattan up the West side to the George Washington Bridge. It is not as fast as either of the highways can be with no traffic but we often drive down it because it is sooo much more pleasurable.
The most beautiful part of the thoroughfare is bounded by views of Riverside Park and the Hudson River to the West and several parks and the rich architecture of buildings on the Upper West Side, and Morning Side Heights to the East. The street meanders up and down and side to side and at times dividing and then coming back together. Frederick Law Olmsted, arguably the pre-eminent landscape architect of his day, designed Riverside Park as well as Riverside Drive.
There are grand historic structures such as the towering neo-gothic Riverside Church, the tallest church in the United States with the largest tuned bell in the world in its carillon. John D. Rockefeller Jr was one of the original patrons. The Ulysses S. Grant National Monument, the victorious Civil War General and former President’s final resting place, is just across and one block South from the cathedral. Some of the buildings on the street are uniquely shaped to follow the outlines of their blocks, which are often curved to follow the street. We often see groups of cyclists riding here on the way to the George Washington Bridge and onward to the Palisades Park in New Jersey.
The cool fresh air invigorates you as you walk among the fallen leaves piled up in the parks while the low winter sun backlights the trees displaying a mix of greens, orange, yellows and reds. A rainbow colored school bus was parked on the street and it just added to the vibrancy of the scene.
There are stately townhouses and brownstones on the side streets especially as you get closer to midtown. Not all is idyllic however. There are often stark contrasts one sees in the city. On one corner we noticed a French Chateau-style home similar to something the Vanderbilt family may have built in another era albeit a fraction of the size. In front of it was a shopping cart filled with black garbage bags waiting to be collected by its owner. It reminded me of a homeless lady I used to see in Hells Kitchen who had all of her possessions in shopping carts. A wealthy homeowner lives in close proximity to the destitute. As we pass by, we are reminded of the range of different lives lived here and know that it also has everything in between.
By Grant’s Tomb there are multiple large cannons and 400ft of colorful tile-covered seating areas for rest and, in our case, contemplation. The first one states “City Arts” and dates from the early 1970s. Who put this here I wondered. What do the various whimsical scenes mean? I later found out CityArts was a non-profit organization that had put up murals and mosaics throughout the city and had restored these curving benches not too long ago. Known as the “Rolling Bench,” it was claimed to be the at-the-time largest public works project in the nation. Neo-classical historic monuments combined with modern public art in a meticulously planned urban park that doesn’t seem to be frequented by many tourists yet is accessible to all New Yorkers. It makes you feel better just traversing through it.
