PARK AND CEMETERY. 
I 0 
meetings, concerts, dancing parties, 
lectures and other entertainments. 
Some of the statistics submitted in 
the report of E. B, De Groot, direc- 
tor of gymnastics and athletics, 
show just how freely these great op- 
portunities were enjoyed. The rec- 
ords of attendance of actual users of 
the various facilities, not includjng 
mere spectators, show tire following 
figures; 
Indoor gymnasia, .371,158; shower 
baths. 806,032; out-door gymnasia, 
2.278,847; swimming pools, 765,299; 
assembly halls, 186,534; club rooms, 
28.239; read'ng rooms, 608,274; lunch 
rooms, 429,312; making a total of 
5,473,695. 
The areas of the various tracts un- 
der control of the South Park Com- 
missioners, exclusive of the 19 miles 
of boulevards, are as follows: 
Name. Acres. 
Jackson Park 523.90 
Washington Park ,.371.00 
Marquette Park 322.68 
Grant Park 205.14 
IMidway Plaisance 80,00 
McKinley Park 74.88 
Sherman Park 60.60 
Ogden Park 60 54 
Palmer Park 40.48 
Calumet Park 39. OO’ 
Hamilton Park 29.95- 
Bessemer Park 22.88. 
Gage Park 20.()0> 
IMark White Square tO.OO. 
Armour Square 10.00 
Cornell Square 10,00 
Davis Square 10.00 
No. 4 Square 7.81 
Russell Square 6.57 
Hardin Square 4.95 
Henry G. Foreman is President of 
the Board; Edward G. Schumway., 
Secretary; J. Frank Foster, general 
superintendent, and Frederick Kanst. 
landscape gardner. 
FEATS IN BUILDING NEWYORK’S GREAT DRIVE 
It is estimated by experts that the 
cost of completing the famous River- 
side Drive in New York will amount 
to $25,250,000, , making it the most 
costly construction of its nature- in 
the world. Ylany of the engineering 
problems met with are unique in 
parkway construction, a typical ex- 
ample of which is seen in the pro- 
posed viaduct to carry the drive over 
Dyckman Street Valley, illustrated in 
the accompanying picture from the 
plans prepared by F. Stuart William- 
son, consulting engineer in charge of 
the work. The structure will cross 
from Fort Washington avenue over 
the Dyckman street valley to Inwood 
hill. It will be built of light granite, 
on attractive lines, and will afford a 
striking contrast to the unsightly 
Claremont viaduct, on which the 
Drive crosses the Manhattanville val- 
ley. Its construction will be unique, 
in that provision is made to carry a 
proposed branch of the subway sys- 
tem'. known as route No. 2, through 
the upper part of the bridge. The 
trains will run in a chamber large 
enough to accommodate four tracks, 
which is to be built into the part of 
the bridge structure beneath the 
Drive and above the tops of the sup- 
porting columns and arches. The 
viaduct will be 160 feet high and 
1,500 feet long. Its estimated cost of 
$2,000,000 is contained in the total ap- 
propriation of $5,250,000 which the 
city has jrist made for the new e.s;- 
tension. 
The plans for the Dyckman street 
viaduct are now awaiting the approv- 
al of the Municipal Art Commission. 
An effort is to be made to make this 
extension as ornamental as any por- 
tion of the Drive. In addition to the 
main roadway, sixty feet wide, there 
will be a bridle path twenty-four feet 
wide and on the river side a walk 
twenty feet wide. From almost ev- 
ery point of the extension a com- 
manding view of the river can be se- 
cured. 
Perhaps the most striking feature 
of the work on that portion of the 
Drive between 135th and 158th streets, 
which is now in progress, is the great 
iron platform over the tracks of the 
Hudson River Railroad, on which the 
Drive sweeps around the rear of 
Trinity Cemetery. Its construction is 
due to the opposition of the Trinity 
Corporation, at the time this section 
of the Drive was laid out, to allowing 
it to pass directly across the western 
end of Trinity Cemetery for the full 
width of the Drive. The city was 
obliged to accept as a compromise a 
right of way of only fifty feet across 
the cemetery location, agreeing to 
build the other fifty feet out over the 
railroad tracks, as has been done. 
It is now thirty-eight years since 
steps were first taken to start the 
work on this great drive at 72d street. 
The rest of this year will be required 
to complete the extension work now 
in hand, and it is estimated that fully 
three and one-half years more will be 
required in which to complete the ex- 
tension from 155th street north to the 
Hudson Memorial Bridge at Spuyten 
Duyvil Creek. In other words, if 
nothing arises further to delay the 
work. Riverside Drive will have been 
completed from 72d street ;<t the 
upper end of Manhattan Island in 
about forty-two years from the time 
it was started. 
This delay must not. however, in 
all fairness, be laid entirely upon the 
shoulders of the contractors. It is 
attributable to various causes, notably 
injunctions served by disgruntled 
property owners and wrangles over 
damage awards. Work on the exten- 
sion between 135th and 158th streets 
which was begun in 1904 has been 
handicapped by injunctions served 
upon the contractors by property 
owners, by encountering difficult 
foundation footings, by a few-' changes 
in the original plans, developed as the 
w'Ork went forward, and recenllj^ by 
the fact that the original appropria- 
tion of $3,163,000 was exhausted. A 
supplemental appropriation of $729,- 
000 has just been made and the work 
is going aiicad. 
VIADrCT TO CARRY RIVERSIDE DRIVE, NEW YORK, OVER DYCKMAN STREET VALLEY. 
