Home › Miscellaneous Curiosities › The Egyptian Obelisk (Proach on Brooklyn side feet)
The Egyptian Obelisk (Proach on Brooklyn side feet)
proach on Brooklyn side, 1,901 feet. Total length, 5,989 feet. Size of towers, at high-water line, 140x59 feet. Total height of towers, 277 feet; from high-water to roadway, 120 feet; highwater to centre of span, 135 feet; from roadway to top, 158 feet; width of bridge, 85 feet. There are tracks for steam cars, roadways for carriages, and walks for foot-passengers, and an elevated promenade commanding a view of extraordinary beauty and extent. The total cost of construction will be very little short of $13,000,000, including money paid for land, houses demolished, etc. It has taken ten years to build it, from 1870 to 1881. The designer was J. R. Roebling.
NEW YORK CENTRAL PARK. - This magnificent pleasureground equals any and surpasses most of a like nature. It covers eight hundred and forty-three acres. It is bounded by Fifth Avenue, 110th Street, Eighth Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street. The various reservoirs, lakes, and ponds cover about one hundred and eighty acres. There are some ten miles of carriage roads, about five and one-half miles of bridle paths, and twentyseven and one-half miles of walks. There are very fine collections of animals and birds about a building known as the Arsenal. The large lakes have many fine row-boats upon them. The Park has cost many millions, but never has money been more righteously expended; for here the people receive back at least some of the taxes that they have paid. The bridle paths for visitors on horseback pass through many beautiful and secluded glades and over breezy hills. The best way, however, of seeing the Park is to walk through it. There are many very fine bridges in brick and stone, and some rustic ones in wood. The Mall is a noble walk, beneath overarching trees. There are large reaches of meadow laid out for play-grounds. Statues of Shakespeare, Scott, Halleck, Burns, and a bust of Schiller. Several excellent groups in bronze also adorn the Central Park. The Belvidere, a high tower in the Gothic style, affords a noble ontlook; while a gloomy cave gives a romantic cast to the gloomy glades that lead to it. Central Park owes its success in a great measure to the gratuitous exertions and admirable taste of August Belmont, the famous banker, and Gen. Strong, an equally well-known business merchant, both leading citizens of New York.
THE EGYPTIAN OBELISK (CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE) IN NEW YORK CENTRAL PARK. -At noon on the 22d of January, 1881, the huge monolith (single stone) from the banks of the Nile was lowered to its final resting-place on the knoll in Central Park. Lieutenant-Commander Gorringe's face was lighted up with smiles at the accomplishment of his arduous enterprise as the Needle of Egypt swung into position and settled into its bed. About 11 o'clock all the officers of the Navy Yard and a strong force of sailors and marines, numbering over 300, were present. After defiling through the Eighty-second Street entrance and BROOKLYN. 11111111 GREAT SUSPENSION BRIDGE CONNECTING NEW YORK CITY AND BROOKLYN.
