Location: Riverside Drive to Hudson River, West 59th Street to Clair Pl
Riverside Park is Manhattan’s most spectacular waterfront park, stretching four miles from 72nd to 158th Streets along the Hudson River. Since 1875, the landscapes of Frederick Law Olmsted have offered escape from the city and opportunities for people of all incomes to relax, play and socialize in tranquil settings. His design for Riverside Drive made it is one of the most beautiful boulevards in the world, affording views of the Hudson River along its serpentine route.
Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States, and his wife Julia occupy the most substantial monument in Riverside Park, designed by John Duncan and finished in 1892. Surrounding Grant’s Tomb, you’ll see some popular local folk art that contrasts strikingly with the Tomb’s severity.
79th Street Rotunda
The vaulted Rotunda, an intense and austere enclosure, encircles a fountain, roofs a parking garage, and supports a traffic circle. Designed by Clinton Lloyd, the fountain area and tiled arcade comes alive periodically with outdoor celebration.
79th Street Boat Basin
From the Boat Basin you can see and hear the hypnotic activity of boat life. Many of the moored boats house water-borne New Yorkers who make this their home. On a sunny weekend, yachts pull in to refuel and sail boats glide by. If you feel like sitting and watching, a good place is the tree-shade hillside north of the Boat Basin.
91st Street Garden and Crabapple Grove
The four-acre grove is an important gateway into Riverside Park. Over time the Garden have accommodate a variety of flowering crabapples and understory trees.
Skate Park
The skate park opened in the summer of 1995, and features various skating surfaces, two half-pipes and assorted ramps. The Riverside Skate Park is located at 108th St. at the ballfield level, and is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11- 7 pm.
Eleanor Roosevelt Monument
The monument, honoring humanitarian and First Lady Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), was dedicated at 72nd Street on October 5, 1996 in the presence of Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the United States. Penelope Jencks was the sculptor. A new landscape on the site of a former West Side Highway access ramp was designed by Bruce Kelly/David Varnell Landscape Architects. Funding for the $1.3 million Eleanor Roosevelt Monument project, which included a renovated entranceway, was provided by the City of New York, the State of New York, and the Eleanor Roosevelt Monument Fund, which has established an endowment for the ongoing maintenance of the sculpture.
Park Drive
On the west side of the drive now built for cars is a tree-lined promenade. On the east side stand residential buildings with majestic views over the Hudson. The original Riverside Drive is full of monumental constructions in ruin reminding us that New York City once dreamed of a metropolis grander than it now can maintain.
Soldiers & Sailors Monument
Visible from any direction in this park section, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument has dominated the area since 1920. Its classically inspired circular form and ornamental terraces are dedicated to New Yorkers who died in the Civil War.
A Garden for All Seasons
A Garden for All Seasons celebrates the cycles of life as reflected in the life cycle of trees. Individual trees and benches are donated in honor of significant events or to mark celebratory occasions. Each gift tells a story which is recorded in a register housed in the Parks Department library in the Arsenal in Central Park.
Joan of Arc Statue
Anna Hyatts’ vibrant statue of Joan standing in her saddle, holding aloft her magical sword and firmly in control of her powerful steed, and on top of John Van Pelts’ Gothic pedestal represents the symbol of French-American goodwill.