Uploads from wallyg, tagged newyorkcitylandmarkspreservationcommission, with geodata

NYC - Central Park: Turtle Pond

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 17:20:13 -0700

wallyg posted a photo:

Taken from Belvedere Castle...

Turtle Pond, at the base of a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/247059149/">Belvedere Castle, along with Great Lawn. occupy the almost flat thirty-five-acre Lower Reservoir, which was constructed in 1842, predating Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux's design of Central Park.

Despite outliving its utility for years, the reservoir wasn't drained until early 1930 to make way for the American Society of Landscape Architects' plans for a great turf oval. The drainage collected in a small pond at the southern end, which became known as Belvedere Lake. Over the years Belvedere Lake developed into a natural habitat for fish, frogs, turtles, dragonflies, and aquatic birds provided. In 1987, it was renamed Turtle Pond in honor of its most conspicuous residents.

In 1997, as part of the Great Lawn renovation, the pond was given a more irregular shoreline, maximizing its length and more closely following the configuration of the original Park lakes. Shoreline plants like lizard's tail, bullrush, turtlehead, and blueflag iris were added to provide habitat for birds, insects, amphibians, and reptiles. Turtle Island, which erves as a wildlife habitat, providing sandy spots for turtles to lay their eggs and nesting as well as foraging sites for birds, was also added. A dock and nature blind were extended into the pond, allowing visitors to see the dead tree trunks deliberately placed as sunning sites for turtles; frogs, and herons, and other waterfowl are also claiming a perch. Fierce-looking dragonflies and damselflies are active on the sunny north shore.

Central Park was designated a scenic landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1974.

National Historic Register #66000538

NYC - Central Park: Turtle Pond

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 17:20:15 -0700

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NYC - Brooklyn Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:28:09 -0700

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The Brooklyn Bridge (originally the New York and Brooklyn Bridge) stretches 5,989 feet (1825 m) over the East River (main span of 1,595 feet 6 inches) connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn. On completion, it was the largest suspension bridge in the world--fifty percent longer than any previously built, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge. For several years, the towers were also the tallest structures in the Western Hemisphere.

Designed by an engineering firm owned by John Augustus Roebling, the bridge is built from limestone, granite, and Rosendale natural cement in Gothic style, with characteristic pointed arches above the passageways through the stone towers. Roebling and his firm had built smaller suspension bridges, such as the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati, and the Waco Suspension Bridge in Waco, Texas, that served as prototypes for the final design.

Construction began on January 3, 1870 and the bridge was opened on May 24, 1883. On that first day, a total of 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed. The bridge cost $15.1 million to build and approximately 27 people died during its construction, including Roebling. As construction was beginning, Roebling's foot was injured by a ferry when it crashed into a wharf; within a few weeks, he died of tetanus caused by the amputation of his toes. His son, Washington, succeeded him, but was stricken with caisson disease (decompression sickness, commonly known as 'the bends'), from working in compressed air in caissons, in 1872. His wife, Emily Warren Roebling, became his aide, learning engineering and communicating his wishes to the on-site assistants. A week after the opening, on May 30, a rumor that the Bridge was going to collapse caused a stampede which crushed 12 people.

Bridges were not tested in wind tunnels until the 1950s. Roebling therefore designed the open truss structure supporting the deck to be six times as strong as he guessed it needed to be. A substitution of inferior qualify wire in the cabling, though, left the bridge just four times stronger, though. Either way, Roebling's design has held up in all conditions over the years.

At various times, the bridge has carried horses, subways (until 1944) and trolley streetcars (until 1950), it currently has 6 lanes for motor vehicles, with a separate walkway along the centerline for pedestrians.

For more of my pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge, click here.

The Brooklyn Bridge was designated a landmark by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967.

Brooklyn Bridge National Register #66000523

NYC - Central Park: Bow Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 17:32:10 -0700

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Bow Bridge, one of the most handsomely designed cast iron bridges in the world, spans sixty feet across the Lake, linking the cultivated and flowering landscape of Cherry Hill with the rustic and sprawling woods of the Ramble. Its proportions and sinuous length inspired one visitor to remark that the bridge looked "poured" over the Lake.

Bow Bridge owes its existence to Commissioner Dillon's desire for a suspension bridge; the designers compromised with a low-lying bridge. Named for its resemblance to an archer's bow, it immediately became one of Central Park's most cherished bridges. It continues to be the romantic setting for wedding proposals, classic film shoots, and the choice of many photographers who want to capture one of the signature design features of Central Park.

Central Park was designated a scenic landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1974.

National Historic Register #66000538

NYC - Central Park: Bethesda Terrace from the Lake

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 17:34:59 -0700

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NYC - Central Park: Belvedere Castle

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 17:16:12 -0700

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Belvedere Castle, sitting upon Vista Rock in Central Park, was designed as an additional feature of the Central Park plan by Calvert Vaux and the sculptor Jacob Wrey Mould, when the team of Olmsted, Vaux and Mould were reappointed to oversee the park's construction in 1865. Built in 1869, it capped the natural-looking woodlands of The Ramble, as seen from the formal Bethesda Terrace, but as the plantings matured, the castle has disappeared from its original intended viewpoint.

When it was built, Belvedere Castle provided a vista over the rectangular receiving reservoir, which has been replaced by the Great Lawn, and Turtle Pond, redesigned as a naturalistic planting.

The castle housed the New York Meteorological Observatory, which was taken over by the United States Weather Bureau in 1912. It is still the site at which meteorological data is collected for Central Park.

Belvedere Castle, the object of much vandalism and deterioration, was closed to the public in the 1960s. It was restored and reopened by the Central Park Conservancy on May 1, 1983. In 1995, the Conservancy's Historic Preservation Crew replaced the painted wooden loggia of the castle, working from Vaux's designs, on the granite piers and walls that had survived. The original design, represented in a published lithograph (Rosensweig and Blackmar 1992 p 203), had called for a more weighty granite structure with a corner tower with conical cap, to balance the mass of the main castle structure to the east, with the existing lookout over parapet walls between them.

Central Park was designated a scenic landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1974.

National Historic Register #66000538

West Street Building

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 20 May 2012 08:24:50 -0700

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The West Street Building or 90 West Street, was designed by architect Cass Gilbert and structural engineer Gunvald Aus in 1907. The 23-story Gothic-style building was originally built as an office building for the West Street Improvement Corporation. The main tenant was the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and the top floor was occupied by The Garret Restaurant, which advertised itself as the "world's highest restaurant."

After suffering severe damaged in the September 11, 2001 attacks, the building was restored and converted into apartments, reopening in 2005. The first floor houses the 9/11 Memorial Visitor Center.

The West Street Building was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1998.

National Register #06001303 (2007)

NYC - Brooklyn Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:28:05 -0700

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NYC - Brooklyn Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:28:16 -0700

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NYC - Brooklyn Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:28:21 -0700

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NYC - Brooklyn Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:28:01 -0700

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NYC - Brooklyn Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:28:03 -0700

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NYC - Brooklyn Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:28:20 -0700

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NYC - Brooklyn Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:28:08 -0700

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NJ - Lambertville: Lambertville House Hotel

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:45:01 -0700

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The Lambertville House, located at 32 Bridge Street, was built in 1812 by Captain John Lambert. During its early years, the hotel was known as Lambert’s Inn and served as a stagecoach stop that provided lodging to U.S. presidents including Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant, dignitaries, and business leaders traveling the main thoroughfare between New York and Philadelphia.

By the 1980's, the Lambertville House Hotel fell into a state of disrepair. It was sold in 1994 and reopened in 1997, restored to its original glory with 26 modernized guest rooms.

New Jersey State Register (1978)
National Register #78001768 (1978)

NJ - Lambertville: Lambertville House Hotel

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:45:03 -0700

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NJ - Lambertville: Lambertville House Hotel

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:44:59 -0700

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NJ - Lambertville: Lambertville House Hotel

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:44:55 -0700

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NJ - Lambertville: Lambertville House Hotel

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:44:57 -0700

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NYC - Two Bridges: St. James' Church

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:29:07 -0700

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St. James' Church, located at 32 James Street, was built in 1837, making it the second oldest Roman Catholic church building extant in Manhattan. The classical Greek Revival design, often credited to Minard Lefever, features a pair of Doric columns flanking the entrance. As originally built, the fieldstone building had a domed cupola above the roof.

Alfred E. Smith served as an altar boy at St. James' Church while he attended the former St. James Elementary School across the street as a student.

St. James' Church was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966.

National Register #72000884 (1972)