PARK AND CEMETERY. 
458 
f! 
For the convenience of those visiting 
the Art Gallery, a pathway 12 feet wide, 
and one-half mile long has been graded 
and graveled, crossing the lagoon on a 
rustic foot bridge. 
All of the road material used in the' 
construction of these new paved roads 
in the park was firm, hard stone and 
broken concrete, the best possible ma- 
terial for such purpose. The traffic 
over a large part of this paved roadway 
for eighteen months has fully demon- 
strated the permanent character of the 
work. 
In the part of the park restored the 
Exposition Company has constructed a 
substantial wooden bridge of good de- 
sign across a connecting lagoon in the 
lake system, and a foot bridge on the 
pathway leading to Art Hill, a wooden 
bridge across the lagoon leading to 
wooded island, and is leaving in place a 
second bridge on the opposite side of 
wooded island. A wagon bridge has 
also been placed across the drainage ra- 
vine from the Mining Gulch. 
By entirely new excavation, and by 
using to some extent. World’s Fair 
waterways, where the lines could be 
made to conform to park plans, the lake 
surface has been considerably increased. 
There has been created a chain of five 
lakes, with a wooded island and con- 
necting lagoons. From the northwest, 
beginning to the southeast overflow, this 
system forms a waterway of about a 
mile and a half. 
On the lower plain, where the main 
picture was, the Restoration Department 
has cleaned, graded and grassed two 
hundred acres of meadow. This work 
necessitated the hauling away of many 
thousand loads of debris which would 
have interfered with grass growing. 
They have also established lawn surfaces 
over one hundred acres of wooded por- 
tion, where the state and other buildings 
were located. Before the World’s Fair 
closed in 1904, the Landscape Department 
began the saving of trees and shrubs. 
The sale of the salvage by the Exposi- 
tion Company exempted all roadway 
material except brick, and all trees and 
shrubs. A nursery of thirty-five acres 
was established in the valley south of 
the Art Building, where the Restoration 
Department preserved and cultivated 
75,000 trees and shrubs. As the work of 
restoration progressed, trees and shrubs 
were transplanted from the nursery to 
the permanent plantations shown in the 
plan of restoration. This work has been 
in progress two years, with the result 
that the earlier plantations showed good 
growth by the fall of 1907. 
When the Exposition Company re- 
ceived the western part of the park 
from the city there was no underground 
drainage system. The company put in 
a sewer system for sanitary purposes, 
and a sewer system for surface drainage. 
Both systems were of vitrified pipe and 
were well put in, so that they remain for 
permanent service. In fact, most of the 
piping of both systems is now in active 
service. The drainage system is prop- 
erly connected with the road and surface 
drainage. Wherever essential the sur- 
face drainage was connected with the 
underground system, putting in perman- 
ent connections, with catch basins and 
gratings. All of this is in the nature of 
permanent and necessary improvement 
of the park. 
There was no water system in the 
western part of Forest Park when the 
Exposition Company took possession. 
The company returns to the city the. 
western portion of the park with a 
general system of water pipe installed 
and well equipped with field hydrants in 
working order. 
This work of restoration has prog- 
ressed through the three years it has 
required, in accordance with the pro- 
visions of the ordinance granting the 
use of this part of Forest Park to the 
Exposition Company. Plans have been 
submitted as the work progressed, cov- 
ering the grading, the restoration and 
repair, the formation of walks and 
roads, the planting of trees, the placing 
of sod and the planting of shrubs and 
plants. Mr. Kessler, the director of 
restoration, has conferred with the Park 
Commissioner and the Board of Public 
Improvements, and those officials have 
from time to time approved of the work. 
While the expenditures have been 
very heavy, and greater than originally 
contemplated, it is believed that the 
work has been done as economically as 
possible. The work has been under the 
immediate supervision continuously of 
D. W. C. Perry, as superintendent. 
Since making this report and at the 
request of the city authorities, the Ex- 
position Company has done a certain 
amount of additional work, lasting during 
the present year, and the work is now 
completed. The most important work 
which has been done this year has been 
the building of four bridges over the 
River Des Peres flume. These have 
been constructed of steel girders carried 
upon concrete abutments, 40 ft. in width, 
corresponding with the roadways, with 
wrought iron railing of neat design. 
The theory of the plan of restoration 
was to preserve all of the beauty of this 
part of the park, and to give by mead- 
ows and arrangement of plantations the 
effect of broad, long vistas. This plan 
of restoration has worked out satisfac- 
torily. It gives to Forest Park an im- 
pression of distances and of magnitude 
that the old park did not possess. The 
director is confident, that as the years 
go by, the visitors to the park will ap- 
prove the judgment which leaves these 
vistas open. Certainly there are no 
more impressive park views in the coun- 
try than those afforded from Art Hill 
to the northward, and from Government 
Hill to the north, and westward across 
the broad meadows, the lakes and 
lagoons, and plantations, to the encir- 
cling sky line of the city. 
iME AREA AFTER THE FAIR; JULY, 1907. 
