The Soldiers & Sailors Monument in the Fall of 2024
I had passed the Soldier’s and Sailors’ Monument when I was walking the Upper West Side of Manhattan for my blog ‘MywalkinManhattan.com’. It sits in an almost graceful state of disrepair behind fencing protecting it from people. It seems that it had been in a state of decay since the start of construction in 1900.
The monument is still under renovation and you can only walk around it
I walked all around the monument while walking Riverside Park thinking it was a small copy of a Greek Temple or another smaller burial site like Grant’s Tomb. You could see where the gaps in the structure were and the need for repair from the stairs to the platform. Still there is a beauty in its details.
The monument in the late afternoon
Reading in a recent issue of The Spirit, it seems that the New York Landmarks Conservatory and the local government officials want to put money into its repair. This beautiful landmark is going to need a lot of time and care in the future. Let’s hope they agreed to it.
The monument still under renovation
History of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument:
(from the parks website)
The monument was first suggested in 1869 after the Civil War and was put on the back burner until 1893 when a nostalgia for the Civil War sweep across the country. The State of New York established a Board of Commission to create a monument to the soldiers’ and sailor’s who had served in the Union Army during the American Civil War (Wiki).
The ground was broke for the monument in 1900 and was completed in 1902 and it was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1902 with President Theodore Roosevelt officiating and a parade of Civil War veterans parading up Riverside Drive (Wiki).
The Monument when it opened
The monument was designed by architects Charles and Arthur Stoughton and the ornamental features were carved by architect Paul E. M. Duboy. The monument takes the form of a peripteral Corinthian temple raised on a high base with a tall cylindrical rusticated cella, that carries a low conical roof like a lid ringed by twelve Corinthian columns. The entrance has the names of the New York volunteer regiments and the battles in which they served as well as the Union Generals . The monument was designed a New York City landmark in 1976 and a State landmark in 2001 (Wiki).
The monument has been plagued with repairs since it was built and according to reports it is in need of desperate repairs. I could tell by the cracks and missing marble that their were flaws in its construction since it had been built.
Still it graces the entrance of Riverside Park with it’s beauty. Look at its details in the carvings and it look of a Greek temple. It is really impressive especially in the summer months with the park behind it in full display. You can’t get too close to the monument in its current state.
When I was walking through High Bridge Park while exploring Washington Heights for my blog, ‘MywalkinManhattan.com’, I came across the Water Tower inside the park right next to the pool that was closed for the season and the Highbridge Walkway, which used to be the old aqueduct that used to bring fresh water into New York City.
The Highbridge Water Tower when I walked “The Great Saunter” through the neighborhood in 2023.
The Highbridge Water Tower is nearly 200 feet tall and stands around 174th Street in Washington Heights. The tower used to hold a 47,000-gallon water tank that was fed by the Croton Aqueduct. The Highbridge next to it was the last leg of the aqueduct’s forty-mile journey from upstate New York to Manhattan and is the oldest surviving bridge in New York City (T.M.Rives 2012).
The former aqueduct from FDR Drive when on The Great Saunter
I revisited the park in the Summer of 2026 and walked around Highbridge Park. I walked around the water tower and never realized how beautiful the tower really is when you see it up close. The detail work is of another era and then you realize how the fresh drinking water got to New York City and how important this was and innovative at the time. The respect it was given in design is shown in the detail work of the building.
The tower in the Summer of 2026
The tower in the summer of 2026
The doorway entrance to the tower that is bolted shut
The windows of the tower
The aqueduct over the East River from the tower location
The tower itself was built between 1866-1872 by architect John B. Jervis in the Romanesque Revival and neo-Greco styles and had a seven acre reservoir next to it. It opened in 1872 and was fully working in 1875. In 1949, the Water tower was disconnected from the system. The tower like the rest of the park had sat in disrepair for years and was restored between 1989-1990 (Wiki). The tower is now going through another restoration that should be finished by April of 2021 (NYCParks.com).
The water tower is part of a much larger park that lines the northern corner of Manhattan. The views are really amazing from all sides of the park. This is when you are walking down the pathways by FDR Drive.
When I visited in the park that summer and then again in the Fall, it was behind fencing because it was still unsafe.
Highbridge Park is beautiful in the Spring and Fall but not the safest park in NYC.
Walking the paths of Highbridge Park
Highbridge Park is a wonderful park to walk around in in the middle of the day during the warmer months. I would not venture around it later at night or in the winter months. It can be a bit desolate and when you walk around the paths by the river with all the abandoned cars and graffiti can be a bit dangerous. I got some looks when walking around.
This was at the bottom of the bridge just off the path.
Open: To Groups on Fridays and Saturdays and to individuals on Saturdays 10:00am/12:00pm/2:00pm
Fee: Free to Individuals/Donations welcome-Groups tours are $100.00 for up to five people with an additional $15.00 fee per person. There is also an administration fee of $25.00 for groups over 20 people.
The Sara Delano Roosevelt Home at 47-49 East 65th Street
It is amazing what you discover when you are walking around the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I was exploring the Streets of the Upper East Side for my blog, ‘MywalkinManhattan’ and when walking around the Hunter College Campus came across the Sara Delano Roosevelt Memorial House at 47-49 East 65th Street.
This beautiful brownstone was built as a wedding present to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor and their future family by his mother Sara Delano Roosevelt. It was their New York City residence until they moved to the White House. His mother continued to use the house until her death in 1941 when the home was sold to Hunter College.
Tours are available when the building is open (Hunter College is currently closed) and you can tour the whole house. The home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
History of the Sara Delano Roosevelt Memorial House:
The Neo-Georgian townhouse was designed by architect Charles A. Platt for Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt in 1907. It originally held “two mirror-image residences with a single facade and entrance. Each floor had its own front reception room with a welcoming fireplace. Rear parlous could be combined through sliding doors
The mansion at 47-49 East 65th Street on the Upper East Side
The house was given to the Roosevelt’s by Franklin’s mother as a wedding gift for them. The house originally two homes and Franklin’s mother had doors put in place so she could enter their part of the home whenever she wanted. The house was used by Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt from its completion in 1908 to her death in 1941 and intermittently by the Roosevelts until the sale to Hunter College in 1943.
The house historical marker
After his mother’s death in 1941, President Roosevelt and his wife placed the house up for sale and a non-profit consortium was organized to purchase the house on behalf of Hunter College.
The Extended Roosevelt family
The house was closed in 1992 and reopened in 2010 after an $18 million renovation. Leslie E Robertson Associates was the structural engineers on this renovation. The building is currently used by Hunter College as the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College or just known as the Roosevelt House.
The inside of the house’s museum
(Disclaimer: This information was from Wiki and I give them full credit for the History of the Roosevelt House).
I love Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan. It is one of the most beautiful parks in New York City. It is a park of rolling hills, stone paths that hug the hills, interesting garden that are ablaze when in season, shady tree sitting areas and is home to many playgrounds and the Cloisters Museum which is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has so much to offer a visitor coming into Manhattan from exploring the woods that line the path to looking at interesting art at the museum. This 67 acre park is one of the interesting and complex in New York City.
A city view of the beauty of the park by the Hudson River
The view from The Cloisters by the Hudson River
When you enter the park from Inwood by Broadway, you enter through Ann Loftus Park which is named after a local community leader and is one of the popular parks with kids and families in the area. In the summer months, the fountains and water fixtures are going strong and the kids run around them while the parents lie under shade trees talking to one another.
When taking the path from Ann Loftus Park and winding up the hills of woods and rock formations is the Hudson River looming in the distance with spectacular views of the Palisades and the large cliffs of Fort Lee, NJ on the other side.
The bathrooms in Ann Loftus Playground
Anne Susan Cahill Loftus biography:
At the top of hill like a crown jewel is the Medieval Galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cloisters Museum. Filled with all the Met’s collections of Religious and Medieval art set into themes of old churches, stained glass windows, flowered courtyards and vistas of the river, it is the perfect place to wonder around.
As you pass the Cloisters and walk further in to the park, there is still so much more to see and do. The Linden Terrace overlooks the Hudson River with its large shade trees over head and its stone benches to sit and just look in the distance or read a book. This was the site of the original Fort Tryon and is the highest location in the park.
Linden Terrace is a nice place to relax and read a book
The flowers by the Linden Terrace
Further down in the other entrance of the park is Heather Garden, a large path of flowers , bushes and trees with benches lining it. The garden was the Olmstead Brothers when the park was taking shape and is a beautiful place to walk in the Spring and Summer months when the park is in full bloom.
The stairs leading to the Linden Terrace
The plaque for Fort Tryon
The anniversary plaque
The Stan Michels Promenade
The Heather Garden in the front
The Heather Garden was recently remodeled to follow the original design by the Olmstead Brothers.
The Heather Gardens
The Heather Gardens in full bloom
The Gardens facing the George Washington Bridge
The Gardens in full view
There is even a terrace restaurant in the middle of the park, the New Leaf Cafe (See review on TripAdvisor-Closed in 2018) which sits off to the side of the Corbin Circle on the other side of the park. The food is over-rated and very expensive. The last time I ate there the menu was pretty standard. It is a great to take out of towners who want a view of something. It is not worth the trip. The views are nice and in the summer months it is pretty but the food and service are standard. Inside the park in 2026, a new restaurant has replaced the former New Leaf Cafe, Le Bonnefont, a Modern French restaurant.
The Bonnefont Restaurant replaced the New Leaf Cafe
The new Bonnefont Restaurant is open for lunch and brunch
The restaurant was closed that afternoon but I was able to look at the menu online and it is an interesting menu. The cuisine is a mixture of French and Contemporary cooking.
The park has so much to offer in all months of the year especially in the Spring and Summer.
The entrance to Fort Tryon Park
Cabrini Woods Nature Sanctuary in the front of the park
The Cabrini Sanctuary in the Spring 2024
History of Fort Tryon Park:
The area was known by the local Lenape Indians as Chquaesgeck and by the Dutch settlers as Lange Bergh (Long Hill). During the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Fort Washington was fought on this site. The park is built on a high formation of Manhattan schist with igneous intrusions and glacial striations from the last Ice Age (Wiki).
The gardens in the Fort Tryon Park
John D. Rockefeller Jr. bought up most the land in 1917, which by that point had been old estates, to create Fort Tryon Park. He hired the Olmstead Brothers firm, under the direction of Fredrick Law Olmstead Jr., the son of the designer of Central Park, to design the park and James W. Dawson to create a planting plan. Mr. Rockefeller also bought the collection of Medieval art from sculptor George Gray Barnard and it was the cornerstone of The Cloisters Museum which was built in 1939 (Wiki).
The Fort Tryon gardens in full bloom
The stairs in the park
Through the years the park has seen its ups and downs especially in the 1970’s and 80’s with the decline of finances in New York City. There were extensive renovations when finances got better in the late 90’s and parts of the park were fully renovated. The Fort Tyron Park Trust, a non-profit organization was founded in 1998 to help maintain the park (Wiki).
When I walked through the park on the recent Great Saunter walk in 2025, they rerouted us through the park when the Riverwalk was closed for renovation. The park was in full bloom and it was the most spectacular day for a visit.
The entrance of the park on that sunny afternoon
The beautiful colorful tulips at the entrance of the park
The colorful gardens were in full bloom
Everyone was routed through the park on the way to Inwood Park for our rest stop. What I found strange was that the park was so beautiful in full bloom and people were not stopping to relax and just enjoy the views. The gardens were amazing and so colorful.
I stopped to look at the beautiful rock garden
The entrance to Heather Garden in the Spring of 2026:
The pathways through the Heather Gardens
Walking through the Heather Garden
The gardens
Walking through The Heather Garden
Walking through the Heather Garden
The other side to Heather Park
Walking through the Gardens
Walking through the pathways of the gardens
Walking around the gardens
Walking back through the gardens to the Fort Tryon location
Walking to the Fort Tryon site
The Fort Tryon site
Walking through Fort Tryon Park during the Great Saunter in 2025:
Welcome to Upstate Manhattan!
I thought this was so clever. One of the volunteers made this sign up which was so funny!
We walked through the park on our way through the park on the way to Inwood Park.
