Avenue in Manhattan, New York
Riverside Drive is a north–south avenue in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The road runs on the west side of Upper Manhattan, generally paralleling the Hudson River and Riverside Park between 72nd Street and the vicinity of the George Washington Bridge at 181st Street. North of 96th Street, Riverside Drive is a wide divided roadway. At several locations, a serpentine service road diverges from the main road, providing access to the residential buildings. Several viaducts connect the various segments of Riverside Drive, including the Manhattan Valley Viaduct between Tiemann Place and 135th Street. A disconnected section of Riverside Drive exists in Inwood, Manhattan. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has designated the original section of Riverside Drive, between 72nd and 125th streets, as part of a scenic landmark that also includes Riverside Park.
Riverside Drive was proposed as part of Riverside Park, which was established by land condemnation in 1872. Originally known as Riverside Avenue, the road opened in 1880 and originally ran between 72nd Street and the current site of Grant's Tomb. The park and avenue were originally designed by architects and horticulturalists such as Calvert Vaux and Samuel Parsons. Riverside Drive was extended north to 155th Street in the 1900s, and a viaduct carrying Riverside Drive West between 155th and 161st streets was built in the 1920s. Traffic flow on Riverside Drive was modified several times throughout the years, and the viaducts have been renovated as well. A southern extension, known as Riverside Boulevard, was built starting in the 1990s when the Riverside South complex was developed.
Between 72nd and 125th streets, nearly every block of Riverside Drive is part of a New York City historic district, and the buildings on these blocks date from before World War II. The eastern side of Riverside Drive originally included luxuriously finished rowhouses interspersed with free-standing mansions, though few of the mansions remain. Many of Riverside Drive's apartment buildings date from between the 1900s and the 1930s, with curving facades along the avenue; some of these buildings are designated as city landmarks. Along Riverside Drive, there are also numerous monuments such as Grant's Tomb and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, in addition to other structures such as Riverside Church. Riverside Drive has received commentary for its landscape features and architecture, and it has been depicted in works of popular media.
Route description.
Starting at 72nd Street, Riverside Drive passes through the Manhattan neighborhoods of the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights, Manhattanville, Hamilton Heights, and Washington Heights. Commercial vehicles are banned from parts of Riverside Drive.
Unlike other avenues in Manhattan, Riverside Drive is curved because its original designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, did not like sharp corners. A narrow service road diverges from Riverside Drive at several points, creating traffic islands. For a short stretch near 122nd Street, the avenue splits into two roadways, one each to the west and east of Grant's Tomb; the western roadway carries southbound traffic, while the eastern roadway carries northbound traffic. There are several viaducts along the route of Riverside Drive, including at 96th Street on the Upper West Side; between Tiemann Place and 135th Street in Manhattanville; and between 155th and 161st streets in Hamilton Heights. The street atop the viaduct in Hamilton Heights is officially named Riverside Drive West, while the original Riverside Drive curves inland.
North of 181st Street, Riverside Drive merges with the northbound lanes of the Henry Hudson Parkway; as such, there is a gap in the road between 181st Street and Dyckman Street. A disconnected section of Riverside Drive begins at the Henry Hudson Parkway's Dyckman Street exit in Inwood, ending at Broadway. South of 72nd Street, Riverside Drive continues as Riverside Boulevard, which extends south to 59th Street.
Viaducts.
96th Street.
A small bridge carries Riverside Drive over 96th Street. The bridge, also known as the Riverside Bridge, was designed by Carrère and Hastings. When this overpass was built, it was described as a viaduct with buttresses and stone terraces leading down to Riverside Park and the Hudson River. Semicircular shelters were also built next to the viaduct on either side of 96th Street. Although the overpass is clad with stone, its superstructure is made of steel. As built, it had four elaborate electric lampposts, each measuring high.
Manhattan Valley Viaduct.
Between Tiemann Place and 135th Street is the Manhattan Valley Viaduct, which carries Riverside Drive above 12th Avenue. Built in 1901, it is variously called the 125th Street Viaduct or Riverside Drive Viaduct. Murray Roe designed the Manhattan Valley Viaduct, while Francis Stuart Williamson was the chief engineer. Despite the structure's utilitarian role as a highway, it was also a strong symbol of civic pride, inspired by America's late 19th-century City Beautiful movement. The viaduct's original roadway, wide pedestrian walks and overall design was highly ornamented. The surrounding area is part of the Manhattanville valley, which contains a fault.
As planned, the viaduct measured long, excluding the approaches. The viaduct carries a roadway measuring wide, as well as a wide sidewalk on either side of the viaduct. The viaduct measures above mean high water at 125th Street and above mean high water at 135th Street. It is divided into 26 bays, each comprising a single span. Twenty-two of the spans are long; one of the spans, crossing 125th Street, is long; and the three northernmost spans are of irregular length. Each arch is composed of latticed plate girders measuring long. Under the roadway are transverse steel girders, which were built in several pieces and riveted together; each girder is deep. The main span above 125th Street is supported by two plate girders measuring across, which were described as the world's largest steel girders at the time of the viaduct's completion. In total, about 400 girders are used to support the roadway.
Including the approaches to the south and north, the viaduct has a total length of or . The northern approach is long, while the southern approach is long. The approaches are of rock-faced Mohawk Valley limestone with Maine granite trimmings, the face work being made up of courses of ashlar. The southern approach consists of a semicircular wall with stone staircases on either side. This was intended to give a broad plaza effect, which was intended to impart deliberate grandeur to the natural terminus of much of Riverside Drive's traffic as well as to give full advantage to the vista overlooking the Hudson River and New Jersey Palisades to the west. There is also a single masonry arch with a glazed-brick vault next to the southern approach.
155th to 161st streets.
Another viaduct carries Riverside Drive between 155th and 161st streets. This viaduct is long and carries a roadway with six lanes of traffic. The viaduct's construction required of steel, of asphalt pavement, of masonry, and of concrete. The structure is carried upon a steel-beam framework, which is encased in granite cladding. The roadway itself is made of concrete slabs, paved over with asphalt. The arches under the roadway are infilled with granite or paneled concrete and are topped by metal-framed windows. The roadway itself has granite balustrades with ornamental lampposts. There is about of storage space under the viaduct. In the mid-20th century, the space was used to store thousands of plaster casts owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Transportation.
Riverside Drive is served by several bus routes. New York City Bus's route covers Riverside Drive south of 135th Street, while the serves the avenue from 135th to 145th Street. The and serve Riverside Drive East and Riverside Drive West, terminating at 158th Street. The westbound runs on Riverside Boulevard from 70th to 66th streets; eastbound buses use Freedom Place. Because Riverside Drive and the neighboring Riverside Park are designated as a New York City scenic landmark from 72nd to 125th streets, the western sidewalk between these streets does not have any bus stop shelters. There is no New York City Subway service along Riverside Drive, though the 1 , ​ 2 , and ​ 3 trains run on the parallel Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line for much of the avenue's length. The Dyckman Street station on the A trains serves the disconnected northern section of Riverside Drive in Inwood.
History.
Development.
The of land in what is now Riverside Park between 72nd and 125th streets were originally inhabited by the Lenape people, but by the 18th century were used for farms by the descendants of European colonists. A small number of buildings were constructed nearby in the mid-19th century, including the New York Orphan Asylum between 73rd and 74th streets. In 1846, the Hudson River Railroad (later the West Side Line and Hudson Line) was built along the waterfront, connecting New York City to Albany. As late as the 1860s, the adjacent section of the Upper West Side was still sparsely populated, even though there was residential development on the Upper East Side.
Riverside Drive.
In 1865, Central Park commissioner William R. Martin put forth the first proposal for a riverside park along the Hudson River. An act providing for such was presented to the Legislature by commissioner Andrew Haswell Green in 1866 and approved the next year. The first segment of Riverside Park was acquired through condemnation in 1872. The park also included the construction of Riverside Drive, a tree-lined drive curving around the valleys and rock outcroppings, overlooking the future park and the waterfront. The road was originally known as Riverside Avenue, although the entire avenue was renamed Riverside Drive by the 1900s. The avenue was laid out in 1868 and was wide for its entire length. The plans for Riverside Park and Avenue brought the attention of William M. Tweed, who bought several lots adjacent to the park in anticipation of its construction.
A selection process for the designers of Riverside Park followed, and in 1873 the commissioners selected Frederick Law Olmsted, a park commissioner who had also designed Central Park. Initially, Riverside Drive had been planned to run in a straight line, which would have required a retaining wall and extensive fill. By then, the difficult topography of the area had come to the attention of the Manhattan park commissioners, and in 1873 Olmsted was given the authorization to redesign the grade of Riverside Drive. To accommodate this, Olmsted devised a new plan that would create a main road extending from 72nd to 123rd streets, with overpasses at 79th and 96th streets, as well as "carriage roads" to serve the nearby neighborhood. The grade of the road was not to exceed 1:27. Riverside Drive's main road would contain two roadways, one for each direction, separated by a median. A pedestrian path and a horse path would run alongside the avenue, and trees would provide shade along the route. A section of the avenue from 104th to 123rd Street would serve as a shaded promenade, and there would be a carriage turnaround at 123rd Street.
Over the following years, work proceeded on Riverside Drive, with various ramps and stairs to the park, as well as a bridle path (which was added in 1875). Olmsted was asked to create plans for the design of the avenue as an unpaved country drive, but it was eventually paved. In late 1876, bids were accepted for the paving of Riverside Drive. Olmsted was ousted as parks superintendent in December 1877. Architects and horticulturalists such as Calvert Vaux and Samuel Parsons laid out the stretch of park and road between 72nd and 125th streets according to the English gardening ideal, creating the appearance that the park was an extension of the Hudson River Valley. A parapet was built on the western side of the road, separating it from Riverside Park and the West Side Line.
Boulevard Lafayette.
The northernmost section of Riverside Drive, north of 158th Street, was originally known as the Boulevard Lafayette. The southern terminus of the Boulevard Lafayette was near 155th Street; the road ran along the coast of the Hudson River, running north to the intersection of Broadway (then known as Kingsbridge Road) and Dyckman Street. Originally known simply as "The Boulevard", the road was renamed the Boulevard Lafayette in 1870; work on that road began in 1873. Although a right-of-way measuring wide was provided for the Boulevard Lafayette, the roadway itself was originally only wide. At several points, due to the steep topography, a retaining wall was built adjacent to the road.
Completion and early years.
Riverside Drive was opened in 1880