Lights and Shadows of New York Life: or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great CityMcCabe, James Dabney
History
Lights and Shadows of New York Life: or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City
McCabe, James Dabney
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
At the foot of this tower are the Croton Reservoirs. There are two of
them. The old or lower one is a parallelogram in form, covering an area
of thirty-one acres, and capable of holding 150,000,000 gallons of water.
The new reservoir lies to the north of the old, and is separated from it
by a transverse road. It is a massive structure of granite, irregular in
form, and extends almost entirely across the park. It covers an area of
106 acres, and will hold 1,000,000,000 gallons of water. Thus the two
reservoirs take 136 acres from the park. The landscape gardeners have so
arranged them that they constitute a very attractive feature of the
landscape.
North of the new reservoir is the Upper Park. This has been less
improved than the Lower Park, but is naturally very beautiful. A large
part of it is taken up with the great ravine formerly known as McGowan's
Pass. It was through this wild glen that the beaten and disheartened
fragments of the American army escaped from the city of New York after
their disastrous rout at the battle of Long Island. Close by they were
rallied in time to make a stand at Harlem Plains. On the hills in the
extreme northern part of the park are still to be seen the remains of a
series of earthworks, which have been carefully turfed over, and on one
of these heights, known as The Bluff, is an old stone structure said to
have been used as a block-house or magazine during the war of 1812-15. A
small part of the "old Boston Road" is still to be seen in this portion
of the park, and in the distance a view is to be obtained of the High
Bridge, the Heights of Westchester county, and the Palisades, on the New
Jersey shore of the Hudson, while Washington Heights rise boldly to the
northward. To the eastward one may see the white sails of the vessels in
Long Island Sound, and get a faint glimpse of the town of Flushing, on
Long Island, and New Rochelle, on the mainland, while nearer are Hell
Gate, the picturesque East and Harlem rivers, with their islands and
public buildings, and the lovely little village of Astoria.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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