All Along the Hudson River (Part One)

On Manhattan's west side, along ten miles of the eastern banks of the Hudson River, stretch quite a few parks, all connected by the Hudson River Greenway walk and bike path.
In the six miles I'll cover in two posts, from 14th Street to 158th, the parks include Chelsea Waterside, Hudson River, and a large group of parks collectively known as Riverside, which stretches from 62nd Street, all the way up Riverside Drive, to 158th Street.
After passing the lightship Frying Pan at Pier 66, an old rusted ship where many great underground bands have played, and then passing over NYC's opening of the Lincoln Tunnel, you come across something you would not expect to be docked in a city like NY: a battleship. Permanently docked at Pier 86 is USS Intrepid CV-11 (also known as "The Fighting I"), which is now the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

When done seeing this mammoth sight, keep heading north to Hudson River Park to check out the giant wine bottle you can live in, at Pier 96.

The art installation by Malcolm Cochran is titled Private Passage, and within the 30ft wine bottle is a replica of a stateroom on the Queen Mary ocean liner.

Last spot, on this half of my walk up the Hudson, is between 65th and 72nd Streets, which inheres Riverside Park South. Much of the area was landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted (who also designed Central Park), beginning in 1875, and has continually been a shady spot to, literally, leave the city behind you. While the park contains many wonderful installations and works of art by a handful, what I came to see is the old 69th Street Transfer Bridge.

This old and destroyed section of rail was part of the West Side Line of the New York Central Railroad, originally used for the transfer of railroad cars from NYC to the Weehawken Yards in New Jersey.
In 2000, while renovating the park, the city decided to keep the old bridge up, and attempt to preserve it, by also adding the diesel-switcher train car NYC 8625 to commemorate the line, though that particular car never ran it.

The area was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

The Daily News (aka The Daily Planet)

If you've seen the 1978 big screen version of Superman, you may be familiar with these two sights.

Clark and Lois stroll across the scene as it serves as the lobby of the fictional newspaper The Daily Planet.
Originally, the building was The Daily News' headquarters from when built, in 1929, to 1995.

The globe in the lobby is still the largest indoor globe, and is considered a permanent educational exhibit...

...though its map has not been recently updated to fit world events.

A Piece of the Berlin Wall

Manhattan is a place to find all things, so why not a piece of the Cold War?
This permanent, outdoor installation is five large sections of the Berlin Wall, tucked near a trendy and expensive eatery in Midtown Manhattan.

Though addressed to 520 Madison Avenue, this relic of Capitalism-vs-Communism is actually located in the courtyard of the Continental Illinois Building, which is on 53rd Street, between Madison and 5th Ave.

The West face of the wall (which now faces east) holds the work of German artists Thierry Noir and Kiddy Citny, while the East face is blank.

This section of the Wall was moved here in 1990, when it was sold by the former DMP to Jerry Speyer of Tishman Speyer, the real estate developer who owns the building.

There are other pieces of the Berlin Wall in NYC, and they are located in the gardens of the United Nations headquarters, another at the marina of the World Financial Center, and a third at Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum in Times Square, though I believe this one is the largest.

Cleopatra's Needle

I recently learned that if you draw a line from the Washington Monument in D.C. to a specific obelisk in London, the line cuts right through Central Park - almost corner to corner. Strangely enough, London’s sister obelisk is also in Central Park (though a bit north of said line), and is called Cleopatra’s Needle.
Immediately after finding out about this, I had to visit - dragging along my camera.
Quick history: In 1450 BCE two 71-foot, 244-ton granite obelisks were commissioned for Heliopolis, Egypt. They were later moved to Alexandria in 18 BCE. One companion was moved to London in 1878, and the other - three years later - to Central Park, NY. It is the oldest, man-made object, outdoors in NYC, and though called Cleopatra’s Needle, has nothing to do with her, besides being Egyptian.
These are the photos I took on my walk over.

The obelisk is balanced on bronze crabs. The history of the obelisk is etched on all the crabs’ claws, in several languages.

This is the south side of the obelisk, and translated it tells us of Horus, the hawk-headed child of Isis and Osiris.

In other words, it’s a big penis, used to remind you of sex and death.
So, try to get a lot of one, and none of the other.

Bennett Park

Not sure how I stumbled across this one, but it was back on a visit to enjoy the Washington Heights area to see Mother Cabrini's mummy (see entry for Feb 3, 2014).
About 10 short blocks south of The Cloisters, right across the street from the the 181 Street subway stop's 183rd St exit is Bennett Park.

Named after James Gordon Bennett, Sr. who launched The New York Herald in 1835, the park opened in 1929. Bennett Park is a part of Fort Washington, which was part of the Continental Army's stand against the British during our independence.

The park sometimes holds Revolutionary War reenactments, but what the spot is most known for to locals, is being the highest natural point in Manhattan at 265 ft above sea level.

While admittedly not even the height of skyscrapers New Yorker's are used to, it isn't even the highest point in the entire city, which is actually Staten Island's Todt Hill at 390 feet above the waters.

Still, it was such a nice area to visit, and on such a perfect day...

I decided to cross the George Washington Bridge over into New Jersey, just to say, "Hi!"