From the Daily News:Visting the Morningside Heights tomb of the 18th President just got better with the addition of a brand-new visitors center.
Overlook Pavilion in Riverside Park, across from the General Grant National Memorial, was recently revamped and now serves as an attraction for visitors.
It opened with a thunderous boom on what would have been Ulysses S. Grant's 189th birthday.
The pavilion, which overlooks the Hudson River, had been closed since the mid- 1970s due to the city's financial crisis. Nearly 40 years later, the exterior of the pavilion has been restored to how it looked when it opened in 1910. But the inside underwent a massive overhaul that now includes a bookstore, restrooms and a community meeting room.
Interesting that the News would omit an actual photo of the pavilion. Well, here it is:
(No signs indicating where the rumored restrooms, bookstore and community meeting room are...)
Here's the curb next to the pavilion:
When you cross the street back over to the tomb, you come across barricaded steps that are too fragile to walk up:
Here are shots of the slate sidewalk next to the tomb:
And here's where tourists enter:
You and I would be heavily fined if the sidewalks in front of our property were in this condition. Why restore a part of the monument but neglect the stairs and sidewalks? Aren't any of the pols who represent this area embarrassed by the conditions at Grant's Tomb? No ice cream money for the National Parks Service?
See previously, from 2007: Rolling over in his grave
15 comments:
Not exactly a paragon of journalism, this story.
You know, I've always wondered just who is buried in Grant's Tomb?
Maybe this could be resolved with a substantial grant!
I grant you have a point.
will someone call this story into the BOB GRANT SHOW ?
So you can break your leg at Grant's Tomb, but the DOT is giving tickets for harmless hairline cracks in sidewalks in Queens? Yeah, makes sense.
No one is buried in Grant's Tomb as they are interred above ground.
I went there on a quiet weekday one afternoon, and the park ranger was nice enough to give me a tour of some of the behind the scenes areas. We went up into the domed ceiling (there is a large cavity between the outer shell and the inner finished ceiling) then out an access door to the outside of the upper roof.
Its a great place to visit.
Some more info that he shared: The whole "who's buried" thing was in part started around WWII.
With is close proximity to the river, they had feared that German U-boats could come up the hudson and would target the tomb to hurt the US's image. They had a few machine gun nests nearby just in case. Anyway, it was thought that at this time, they relocated the bodies for a "just in case" measure. In fact, a few years ago, someone found a rock nearby in the park with a small bronze marker in the shape of an arrow (army symbol). They did some digging there, but nothing was found.
Julia Dent Grant lies next to her husband, The General.
That info never made Groucho Marx's old TV show, "You Bet Your Life".
Wunderbar! Chust wunderbar! Dis zite ist z-o-o-o etchoocationul. Hahr-hahr. (I chust luff it.)
Mrs. Grant is interred on the leeward side of the President.
Just don't take them for granite!
Just don't take them for granite!
Somebody's stoned!
to the ex gov Arnold, now we know why Maria left you.
you are not very funny !!!
looks better actually than some of the new lousy cement pours that you see all over - or worse than that - the nico-lock type of pavers. ugh....
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