HENRY HUDSON PARKWAY HAER NY-334 Extending 11.2 miles from West 72nd Street to Bronx-Westchester NY-334 border New York New York County New York WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street NW Washington, DC 20240-0001 HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD HENRY HUDSON PARKWAY HAER No. NY-334 LOCATION: The Henry Hudson Parkway extends from West 72nd Street in New York City, New York, 11.2 miles north to the beginning of the Saw Mill River Parkway at Westchester County, New York. The parkway runs along the Hudson River and links Manhattan and Bronx counties in New York City to the Hudson River Valley. DATES OF CONSTRUCTION: 1934-37 DESIGNERS: Henry Hudson Parkway Authority under direction of Robert Moses (Emil H. Praeger, Chief Engineer; Clinton F. Loyd, Chief of Architectural Design); New York City Department of Parks (William H. Latham, Park Engineer); New York State Department of Public Works (Joseph J. Darcy, District Engineer); New York Central System (J.W. Pfau, Chief Engineer) PRESENT OWNERS: New York State Department of Transportation; New York City Department of Transportation; New York City Department of Parks and Recreation; Metropolitan Transit Authority; Amtrak; New York Port Authority PRESENT USE: The Henry Hudson Parkway is part of New York Route 9A and is a linear park and multi-modal scenic transportation corridor. Route 9A is restricted to non-commercial vehicles. Commuters use the parkway as a scenic and efficient alternative to the city’s expressways and local streets. Visitors use it as a gateway to Manhattan, while city residents use it to access the Hudson River Valley, located on either side of the Hudson River. The land adjacent to the parkway includes the Hudson River Valley Greenway and the railroad (Amtrak), each of which affords outstanding views of the Hudson River, the Palisades, and New York City. The parkway system connected by the parkway includes major city and state parks, recreational and cultural facilities, natural areas and scenic overlooks. Bridges and tunnels link upland neighborhoods to the river. SIGNIFICANCE: The Henry Hudson Parkway represents an important achievement in the fields of transportation, landscape architecture, and community and regional planning. It is also significant for its HENRY HUDSON PARKWAY HAER No. NY-334 (Page 2) association with the evolving social, cultural and economic changes that transformed America into the premier automobile nation. Robert Moses and his engineers conceived and constructed the Henry Hudson Parkway during the height of the American parkways movement; as such, its design fulfilled the ideals of “parkway” as “a park with a road.” The road took advantage of natural and man-made terrain, offered easy access to recreational areas, passed through pleasant urban and suburban landscapes, and presented the magnificent scenery of the Hudson River. The parkway was more than a destination; it was also designed to be a free-flowing conduit between the metropolis and outlying suburbia. In this respect, the parkway presaged the era of post- World War II highways engineered primarily for transportation efficiency. The Henry Hudson Parkway is a milestone in roadway design, displaying in its conception and execution a unity of aesthetics and engineering. HISTORIANS: Elizabeth Michell and Katharine Reed, September 2005 Justine Christianson, HAER Historian, 2005-2006, with contributions by Christopher Marston, Project Leader, 2005-2006 PROJECT INFORMATION: The Henry Hudson Parkway Recording Project is a multi-year project conducted by the Historic American Engineering Record, a branch of Heritage Documentation Programs (Richard O’Connor, Acting Manager), a division of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (Joel Ettinger, Executive Director) funded the documentation. Nancy O’Connell (New York Metropolitan Transportation Council) facilitated the project. The Riverdale Nature Preservancy’s Henry Hudson Parkway Task Force, Hilary Hinds Kitasei, Chair, provided assistance. The summer 2005 documentation team consisted of Christopher H. Marston, Project Leader, and Justine Christianson, HAER Historian. Elizabeth Michell (Colorado State University) and Katharine Reed (Bard Graduate Center) served as historians during summer 2005. Matthew Stutts of Cultural Resources GIS completed GPS and ArcView maps of the parkway. HENRY HUDSON PARKWAY HAER No. NY-334 (Page 3) TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 5 Description 6 West 72nd Street to George Washington Bridge 7 Riverside Drive and Park, West 72nd Street to 155th Street 13 George Washington Bridge to Henry Hudson Bridge 15 Henry Hudson Bridge to Van Cortlandt Park 20 Van Cortlandt Park to Westchester County Line 22 Guide Rails 23 Signage 24 Surface 25 Curbs 25 Drainage System 25 Early History of the Henry Hudson Parkway Corridor 26 Parkway and Parkway Precedents 30 The Henry Hudson Parkway in the Region 32 Envisioning the Henry Hudson Parkway 33 Robert Moses 33 Financing the Parkway 35 Defining the Parkway 36 Expectations 36 Scope of Work 37 Background of the Project 38 The Controversy 49 The Concept 53 Construction of the Parkway 55 Rigid-Frame Concrete Bridges 57 Girder and Floorbeam Bridges 59 Westchester County to Dyckman Street 60 Henry Hudson Bridge, As Originally Constructed 62 Dyckman Street Bridge 63 Dyckman Street to West 72nd Street 64 Fort Tryon and Fort Washington Parks 64 Riverside Park 65 Henry Hudson Bridge, Addition 66 Safety Features 68 Landscaping 70 Signage 74 Additions to the Parkway 75 Henry Hudson Parkway in Use 78 The Completed Parkway 78 The Reaction 79 The Impact 80 Safety Improvements 83 HENRY HUDSON PARKWAY HAER No. NY-334 (Page 4) Parkway Connections 84 George Washington Bridge 84 Miller Highway 86 Riverside Park South 87 Hudson River Valley Greenway 87 Into the Future 88 Conclusion 89 Appendix A: Inventory 90 Bibliography 198 HENRY HUDSON PARKWAY HAER No. NY-334 (Page 5) INTRODUCTION On a cold rainy day in December 1936, Robert Moses opened the Henry Hudson Parkway (HHP), declaring: “There is nothing new in New York, at least in the field of physical public improvements…We do not invent great city plans in these days. We simply discover and inherit what others have recommended long ago….”1 Moses was of course being deliberately modest, because by the completion of the entire Henry Hudson Parkway in October 1937, the public could see that this parkway was indeed something new and grand on an unprecedented scale. The construction of the parkway was part of the West Side Improvement, a joint endeavor of the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority, New York City Department of Parks, New York State Department of Public Works and the New York Central Railroad. The project included completing the West Side Highway from Canal Street to West 72nd Street, covering the railroad tracks from West 72nd to 125th streets, reclaiming the deteriorating Riverside Park along that same stretch, building the new Henry Hudson Parkway from West 72nd Street to the city limits in the Bronx, and constructing the long-promised Henry Hudson Bridge across the Harlem Ship Canal. Robert Moses finished the project in an astounding three years. The resulting West Side Improvement and parkway for its entire length down to the tip of Manhattan Island, constitutes one of the greatest public projects ever undertaken in any city. Riverside Drive, now that through traffic passes along the parkway at the river’s edge, is an elongated park and drive surpassed by few similar developments anywhere. The parkway makes a superb approach to and provides an unequalled view of the city.2 It provided motorists with easy access to the magnificent scenery and recreational areas of the Hudson River on both the Manhattan and the New Jersey shores (through the parkway connection to the George Washington Bridge) as well as to the Bronx, Westchester County, and beyond. In addition, the parkway formed an important transportation link in the projected network of parkways and roadways designed to connect all points in Manhattan with each other and with the rest of New York and the surrounding regions. The Henry Hudson Parkway was a superb expression of the parkway ideal. Using the Bronx River Parkway in Westchester County as a prototype, the HHP was not only a roadway but also a reclamation project that improved the Hudson River shoreline. The HHP was a grade-separated, limited access, divided road winding through the scenery of the Hudson River corridor.3 It is a parkway in the fullest sense: it is a road that has its own park, the rehabilitated and expanded Riverside Park, and it also connects several 1 The Henry Hudson Parkway Authority, Opening of the Henry Hudson Parkway and Progress on the West Side Improvement (New York: The Henry Hudson Parkway Authority, 1936), 7. 2 Cleveland Rodgers, Robert Moses: Builder for Democracy (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1952), 89. 3 There may have been a traffic signal at Fort Tryon Park, but that has not been definitively ascertained. HENRY HUDSON PARKWAY HAER No. NY-334 (Page 6) other city parks (Riverside, Fort Washington, Fort Tryon, Inwood Hill, and Van Cortlandt parks) in a facsimile of Frederick Law Olmsted’s idea of a “ribbon” of parks. The HHP was an evolution in parkway development since it was located in a densely populated urban metropolis with residential development along its corridor. Not only did the parkway capture scenic views of the Hudson River, but also it presented motorists with the New York City skyline and delivered them into the heart of the metropolis. The parkway became an important route to downtown Manhattan as well as a gateway to the city for travelers from the north. It filled the need for a route through the city as automobile usage evolved from a recreational diversion to a serious mode of transportation.