ENGINEER'S REPORT 



Messrs. Olmsted & Vaux. 



Gentlemen : 



I submit herewith a report of operations and progress' of work 

 during the year 1872, together with the usual statistic inventories, 

 &c, for the same period. 



Owing to the very severe and protracted cold weather of the 

 early part of the season, construction work was not resumed until 

 the 1st day of April ; and, owing to limited funds at the disposal 

 of the Commissioners for the year, was discontinued about the 1st 

 of September following. During this period, however, we em- 

 ployed an average daily force of over 900 men, and their labor 

 was mainly confined to the development of the surface work, and 

 planting of the large area lying on the southwest side of the park 

 and the westerly slope of Lookout Hill. 



DETAILS OF CONSTRUCTION. 

 PROSPECT PARK. 



During the brief working season within which our operations 

 were restricted, the force was distributed as follows : 



PLAZA. 



Early in the year a part of the thirty-foot sidewalk on either 

 side of the entrance drive was covered with an improved concrete 

 pavement, the surface being colored by a new process after the 

 body of the pavement had been put down. While the substantial 

 part of the pavement has proven satisfactory, the colored surface 

 has failed, the process by which the coloring matter was incor- 

 porated with the material forming the pavement evidently being 

 imperfect. 



To a considerable extent the use of tar concrete pavements has 

 proven satisfactory and economical on the park ; but a process by 



