SCENES FROM THE BIG ONION


The following photographs were not taken by me, as I do not own a camera. Rather they are, er, "backup archives" extracted from various websites—you know, in case the originals are damaged or lost. Purely philanthropic intentions on my part, of course.

Central Park

View from the Ramble

The Ramble is a 38-acre "wild garden" featuring rocky outcrops,
secluded glades, a stone bridge, and a tumbling stream. It was designed by
Frederick Law Olmsted in the 1860s and sculpted out of a wooded hillside.
Over 230 species of birds have reportedly been spotted here over the years.

View of the Dakota from the Ramble

The Literary Walk

Belvedere Castle

Designed in 1865. Currently houses
the Henry Luce Nature Observatory.
The species visible on the right are commonly known as tourists.

Stairs of Doom

These lead to the Aztec sacrificial altar.

Upper West Side

The Dakota

Completed in 1884.
Exterior shots were filmed here for Rosemary's Baby.
Residence of John Lennon until his assassination in 1980,
after which he relocated.

Ansonia Hotel

First air conditioned hotel in New York, completed in 1904.
 Proposed for demolition in the 1960s, nixed by public outcry.

View of the Ansonia Hotel from a rooftop

Lower Manhattan

Washington Square Park
Greenwich Village

Once a potter's field in the wake of the yellow fever epidemic of 1797.
Stomping grounds of Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Herman Melville,
Walt Whitman, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Jack Kerouac,
Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, and Stanley Kubrick, among others.

In 1917 Marcel Duchamp and comrades climbed to the top of the arch
to declare their secession from New York and proclaim the newly
established Independent Republic of Bohemia. Apparently it didn't take,
and since then the city has kept the door to the arch locked.

 

Woolworth Building
(center, back)

Completed in 1913.
Tallest building in the world for 17 years until surpassed
by 40 Wall Street (currently the Trump Building) in 1930.

 

Flatiron Building

Officially called the Fuller Building, completed in 1902.
Designed by Daniel Burnham, the mastermind behind
the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.

For years after its completion, New Yorkers exchanged bets
on how long it would take before the wind knocked it over.

Park Slope, Brooklyn
Typical residential street

Brownstone at St. John's Place

Queen Anne style, built in 1888.

Poly Prep Lower School

Completed in 1892.

The original "Tower House" of the Judy Bolton mysteries may have looked something like this, and was probably set in this neighborhood.

Memorial Presbyterian Church

Neo-Gothic brownstone, built in 1883.
I was unable to edit out the not-so-gothic traffic light.

Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters

View of the Hudson River from Fort Tryon Park

Fort Tryon Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr,
son of the architect of Central Park, on land donated by
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. It was completed in 1935.
The grounds contain the Cloisters, a museum dedicated to
European art from the middle ages and housed in a replica
of a medieval monastery.

A bluff at Fort Tryon Park

Admittedly somewhat barren. Attach foliage for full effect.

 

George Washington Bridge from Fort Tryon Park

Cross this bridge to reach New Jersey, if such a thing is necessary.