View, across Columbus Circle towards Time Warner and Trump Hotel glass skyscrapers, Maine Monument, Central Park, New York City
The Maine Monument, at the south-western entrance to Central Park, was built 1901-13 to commemorate the 260 American sailors killed when the USS Maine pre-dreadnought battleship exploded, under mysterious circumstance, in the harbour of Havanna, Cuba, February 15th 1898, precipitating the Spanish-American War. Four days after the tragedy, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst's New York Morning Journal called for a public collection to honour the dead sailors. A design by sculptor Atillio Piccinilli and architect Harold Van Buren Magonigle was chosen in 1901. The monument consists of a limestone base in the shape of a ship's prow topped by a tall pylon crowned by a gilded figure of Columbia (Liberty) Triumphant leading a seashell chariot pulled by three hippocampi or part horse part sea creatues. The crowning sculpture, regilded in 1995, is said to be cast from metal recovered from the guns of the Maine. The base of the statue is flanked by statues of allegorical figures representing Justice, Peace, Victory, Courage and Fortitude. Here we see the monument, looking across Columbus Circle towards the glass Time Warner Tower and Trump International Hotel.
Size: 4256px × 2831px
Location: Maine Monument, Central Park Merchant's Gate, Columbus Circle, New York City, USA
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: bronze, cars, cenotaph, central, chariot, circle, city, columbia, columbus, figures, gate, gilded, glass, gold, hotel, liberty, maine, memorial, merchant, metal, monument, park, pylon, sculpture, sea-shell, seahorses, skyscrapers, spanish-american, statue, street, time, tower, triumphant, trump, urban, uss, view, war, warner, york
