Year: 1868


located its most Immediately valuable points. In
connection with these points projects 10 widen and
ornament the intersecting streets have been pro-
posed and ventilated. As thoroughfare Of
fashion the most important OF these will be l0Gth
street, which directly from the Riverside Park
to the most slightly poiat of the Central Park
viz, the great hill. The project of widening this
street and treating it as a part of the Boulevard
has been mooted (and win no doubt be adopted
before the street is built up) also has been that
opening new gate into the Park in front
of the intersection of the street with Eighth
avenue, to receive some name indicative
Of the elite which is hereafter to throng
its sidewalks and pave. This Park entrance, il
agreed upon, should be highly ornamental, form
ing appropriate structural ending for the street
in question: hereafter to be the most celebrated
transverse thoroughfare between Fiftynnth and
10th streets. At present, in fact, and more
especially as the city develops, the number Of
Park gates will be found quite insufficient, and
their increase is q question which should be held
open and subject to the public demand. By all
means there should be a gate opening directly at
the base Of the great hill opposite lo6th street.
Since the most commanding deviation OF
bHC WuOlo IaIh 10 uciC lUCdtt0 auu
ought to be rendered easy Of access
from this thoroughfare. This hill will be
terraced in due season also and the natural OPEN
ing Of this terrace win be upon Eighth avenue, at
the foot of it. This project is under considers
ton and cannot but secure attention and active
work at some time not long in the future. 1t
would be well, in fact, to open new gates opposite
every one of the thoroughfares indicated by the
junction of the Boulevard with the several avenues,
and no doubt the feasibility of doing this has
already occurred to the Commissioners. The
Park was laid out before the Boule-
ward, and its gates, for want of data, have
'been rather arbitrarily disposed than otherwise;
and, though none Of them should be closed, others
accommodated to the wants of the existing plan
should be opened from time to time as public de.
mand may indicate or public convenience require.
In fact the gates the west side ought to be more
numerous than those on the east, since the great
upper thoroughiares of the city will be located on
this tract; and within the next ten years two.
thirds of all the visitors thereat will
really enter from thoroughfares Of the western
tract, pouring from every point of intersec-
tion heretofore indicated into the great pleasure
ground OF the city. No more far-sighted measure,





this want before it is seriously felt an1 the re-
spending to it in advance of any agitation. The
expense would be at present comparatively small,
and the opening of these gates would secure a
complete unison Of the Park with the just
completed plan Of the western tract, and tend to
develop with greater rapidity its leading trans
verse thoroughfares. The drive along the Boule-
ward must otherwise, in order TO gain the great
hill be turned at 10th street, instead of passing
down to l06th street, which is opposite the
hill; and thus the pleasure seeker Is forced to the
Harlem flats to gain access instead OF continuing
the high ground along the line OF the Boulevard
to the ornamented junction of the Boulevard with
l06th street. and across q highly ornamented
street to the great hill. The proposition to extend
the number Of gates on the western boundary needs
no further discussion however. and may be left for
five years; though it is sure to become q serious
question within that time, and to have its way
finally. The opening at l06th street has, in fact,
already received considerable attention, and will
no doubt be carried into effect at an early day.


THE EAST SIDE


il also beginning to demand an ornamental
thoroughfare, which in due season will be needed
and must be rendered. Fifth avenue is by no





has been turned to Madison avenue, now opened
as far as Eightysixth street and just about to be
opened to the Harlem river, as supplying the
means to attain this desideratum. Property along
this line has not attained that inordinate figure
which renders widening impracticable, SO far as it
relates to the Fifth avenue and others; and if. in
connection with its opening, its widening were
ordered, the ornamental thoroughfares on both
sides Of the Park might be considered as COM
plete. 1t has been proposed, therefore, to widen
this avenue to the breadth OF 100 feet from
from Fifty-ninth street to the Harlem river to
which point it will soon be opened and to orna-
ment 1t with trees and carriage ways after the
model OF the Boulevard. The favorable consider
alton of this project by the authorities will secure
another great longitudinal thoroughfare, which
will be needed Oh the east side almost imme-
diately, and should therefore, be decided upon
with prornptness and opened for grading; and it
lis to be hoped that the city authorities will not be
so short.sighted as to reject it. And with this
suggestion, leaving the Fort Washington tract
to be hereafter discussed, this paper may be ap-
propriately though rather abruptly concluded.
other details of the west side having been ex-
hausted in previous article.