The Hudson, from the wilderness to the sea . HARLEM PLAINS. and Mount Washington, within which occurred most of the sanguinaryscenes in the capture of Fort Washington by the British and Hessians. Our rocky observatory, more than a hundred feet above tide-water,overlooking Harlem Plains, is included in the Central Park. Let usdescend from it, ride along the verge of the Plain, and go up east ofMcGrowans Pass at about One Hundred and JS^inth Street, where theremains of Forts Fish and Clinton are yet very prominent. These werebuilt on the site of the fortifications of the revolution, during the w
The Hudson, from the wilderness to the sea . HARLEM PLAINS. and Mount Washington, within which occurred most of the sanguinaryscenes in the capture of Fort Washington by the British and Hessians. Our rocky observatory, more than a hundred feet above tide-water,overlooking Harlem Plains, is included in the Central Park. Let usdescend from it, ride along the verge of the Plain, and go up east ofMcGrowans Pass at about One Hundred and JS^inth Street, where theremains of Forts Fish and Clinton are yet very prominent. These werebuilt on the site of the fortifications of the revolution, during the war of 396 THE HUDSON. 1812. Here we enter among tlie hundi-ecls of men employed in fashioningthe Central Park. What a chaos is presented! Men, teams, barrows,blasting, trenching, tunnelling, bridging, and every variety of labourneedful in the transfonning process. We pick our way over an almostimpassable road among boulders and blasted rocks, to the great artificialbasin of one hundred acres, now nearly completed, which is to be called. ??? ij-^- z^ •?--- VIEW IJT CENTEAI, PAEK.* the Lake of Man-a-hat-ta. It will really be only an immense tank ofCroton water, for the use of the city. We soon reach the finished portionsof the park, and are delighted with the promises of future grandeur andbeauty. THE HUDSON. 397 It is impossible, in the brief space allotted to these sketches, to giveeven, a faint appreciative idea of the ultimate appearance of this park,according to the designs of Messrs. Olmstead and Vaux. We may onlyconvey a few hints. The park was suggested by the late A. J. Downing,in 1851, when Kingsland, mayor of the city, gave it his official recom-mendation. Within a hundred days the Legislature of the State of NewYork granted the city permission to lay out a park; and in February,1856, 733 acres of land, in the centre of the island, was in possession ofthe civic authorities for the purpose. Other purchases for the same endwere made, and, finally, the area of the park
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjecthudsonrivernyandnjde
