58 REPORT OF THE 



ment of its walks and drives it will come to share at once, 

 more fully than can any part of Prospect Park, in that mag- 

 nificent view from the Reservoir-hill, eastward, northward, 

 westward, as well as toward the south, including our own 

 city, the City of New York, with glimpses of the shining 

 waters that form a national highway of commerce from the 

 upper part of the East River onward toward the Bay and 

 the Narrows ; and extending in the other direction to Coney 

 Island and the Ocean. If the land is retained, and the ample 

 roadways for which it waits are opened through it, an imme- 

 diate and vast benefit will be conferred on all those approach- 

 ing Prospect Park by way of Washington avenue, of Classon 

 avenue, or of .the Eastern Park-way, since they will reach 

 Park-surfaces at a nearer point, and will come to the main 

 Park through shaded drives and lawn-expanses rapidly becom- 

 ing not inferior to its own ; while those leaving it, in the direc- 

 tion of either of these avenues, will have equally improved 

 facilities of exit. Indeed, those approaching or leaving Pros- 

 pect Park by the present Plaza, will be almost certain to turn, 

 either in going or returning, into this auxiliary Park, extend- 

 ing their drive-way, and giving them views out to the horizon 

 not offered elsewhere ; and if a terrace should be arranged 

 fronting the Plaza, as is perfectly practicable, and the slope 

 behind it shoidd be masked and piled with rich shrubbery, 

 even the unsightly Reservoir-hill, which has been hitherto 

 almost as ugly as the Plaza itself, would be transformed into a 

 thing of positive and permanent beauty. 



The improvement of a tract of land so large as this, and also 

 so prominent, with the perpetual dedication of it to the enjoy- 

 ment of the public, would be a matter of grave interest and 

 importance wherever in the city such land might chance to be 

 situated; but the value of this tract, as offering an additional 

 pleasure-ground to the city, is plainly and vastly increased by 

 .its immediate proximity to Prospect Park, and by the easy 

 inter-connection of its walks and drives with those opened, or 

 readily to be opened, in the larger spaces of the latter. The 

 new tract will afford ample opportunity within itself for con- 



