And Now, For Something Completely Different...

We left the Grant memorial and turned left, intending to head for the Riverside Church and then the Columbia U campus, but were immediately arrested by the sight of a great Gaudi-esque bench/wall that almost encircles the memorial site. We'd been to Gaudi's Park Guell installations in Barcelona (here and here) and an imitation/allusion in Lima (here), but...New York City?! And the Grant memorial?! Although Grant was much given to literary art--he nearly quit West Point for his interest in novels and plays--one wonders what he would have made of Gaudi. In any case, the Riverside "rolling mosaic bench" was a 1972 community arts undertaking, the largest of its time, but without any reference to Antonio Gaudi. Or General Grant. Sic transit, Gloria.

Grant's Tomb

I have long been a Grant fan--my favorite general, among my favorite presidents, my favorite American, FWIW--and have long been under the sway of the several revisionist historians who have written about him in recent years. Also my favorite smoker and drinker, pal of Mark Twain, and man of simple virtues, trust, and faithfulness. His memorial, now administered by the National Park Service, is just a few blocks up the river from our apartment, so I had to make the pilgrimage. Vicki has always been curious about who is buried in Grant's tomb, so she made the pilgrimage too.

In Riverside Park, about 123rd St.

The whole thing is said to have been modeled on the
great mausoleum of Halicarnassus

The tombs of Grant and his wife, Julia

From his 2nd term as President

Vicksburg..."dust-covered man on a dust-covered horse"...like his
monument before the US Capitol

A couple side-rooms show Civil War battle sites

His principal lieutenant

The memorial was built and paid for privately, by subscription; Grant was
the great man of the 19th century in the US; surpassed by Lincoln only in
the 20th century

Oh, the answer to the great Marxist (Groucho) question about Grant's Tomb is:
no one; see the Wikipedia entry...

New York City Scenes, 3: Not Entirely Random

More scenes from assorted projects, errands, adventures, pilgrimages...

We've always wondered how you sell cars in a hyper-densely populated
place like NYC, where display space is so limited and so costly...

So here we are, on the roof of Toyota of Manhattan, 49th St. or so,
the Hell's Kitchen area, looking over to the mid-town area...the many
floors below are given to other show-rooms, sales areas, service,
and so on; I think these are mostly the used cars, trade-ins, etc.

Awaiting service...

Looking the other way is the Hudson River, New Jersey, the WWII
veteran aircraft carrier Intrepid (now a museum) and submarine #577;
though the Intrepid saw some action in the War, it got hit a lot and 
mostly was back in the States getting repaired; converted to an "attack"
carrier after the jet age; my interest in naval aviation ends with the 
conversion to jet fuel (and nuclear), so we'll pass on these two (and
their many non-WWII aircraft)

Moving right along...we are now walking down 11th
Avenue toward the Hudson Yards development

Thus...so beautiful...not!

Muralist in action...click to enlarge and you'll see him/her in a white

helmet; which leads me to wonder whether Michaelangelo wore

a helmet...was it white? 

Some of the enormous Jacob Javits NYC convention center...goes on

for blocks, but not presently convened

We have yet to see any Amazon trucks here on the streets of New York;
mostly one sees guys [sic] with handcarts or hand-pulled wagons,
delivering from building to building, many per street, the larger distribution
to them carried out by rental trucks...fascinating...

Variation on the same theme

Charles Ray's Adam and Eve; where's the talking snake?
I ask; and the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil?

In the Moynihan Train Station/Penn Station

Sympaticos...

Walking in Riverside Park, a few days later, en route

to Grant's Tomb (next post); the building is called "the

Coliseum"

More innerestin' buildings near the Columbia U campus
(currently closed to the public...recent demonstrations 
concerning the current Gaza war)

The Tower of Riverside Church, the liberal Christian bastion 

of Harry Emerson Fosdick, built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Two Towers, Union Theological Seminary and
Riverside...

Gothic garage doors

"A funny thing happened on the way to the Ascension..."

Famous churches gotta' have gift shoppes

More of UTS

Spotted lanternfly...invader from Asia...very bad
for agriculture; might be useful for fishing

Inside Hex and Company, Manhattan's largest board game cafe

Main entrance, tympanum, to the Cathedral of St. John the
Divine; said to be the world's largest Gothic, 6th largest of 
any type of church; very late 19th century; lots of steel 
girders and beams, one supposes; Episcopal

Has not stood the test of time; check back in 6-8 centuries...

The humongous dome over the crossing (?) is totally weird and
un-Gothic

The usual imitation trappings

Knave view...bathed in the weirdest of lavender...they want $15p/p
to go in past the gift shoppe to walk around

Closer up

We headed for the exit

Somewhat interesting sculpture in the carpark park

A Manhattan thing?