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Grand Army Plaza -Arch — Brooklynian

Grand Army Plaza -Arch

richard
richard
edited November -1 in Park Slope
Hello,

I am an 'old' parent of adult children raised in
Park Slope and in Prospect Park.

One exciting and unknown view I'd like to share with today's local parents is from Prospect Park's Brooklyn Mirador.

Stand inside Prospect Park's main entrance, on the roadway median facing the Arch. With your back flush against the lamppost, and standing on its concrete base, look through the Arch.

The Empire State Building is perfectly framed. Its Tower just 'touches' the inside of the Arch's opening.
The Tower bisects the Arch, Bailey Fountain, and the concrete 'balcony' where you stand.
The original line-of-vision was planned 1865.
25 years before the Arch (1892).
65 years before the Tower (1931).
105 years before the Mirador (1970).
Websites http://thebrooklynmirador.com/ and http://brooklynmirador.com/ explain how
and why this alignment began and how it evolved into this amazing view.

Building #6 of Atlantic Yards will block this view forever.

Richard
35 year Park Slope Resident

Comments

  • meredithb
    meredithb
    I'm sure in 1892 they thought, "Someday there will be a large building built in Manhattan that will be framed by this arch."

    It's called luck not fate.
  • richard
    richard
    Maybe in 1865 they planned the axis of the elliptical plaza so that if it was extended north, it would intersect William Astor's Manhattan manaion at 350 Fifth Avenue?
  • meredithb
    meredithb
    Or maybe Flatbush Avenue existed in such a way that they said, "An arch would look good right about here."
  • richard
    richard
    The Arch points between Flatbush and Vanderbilt.
  • prodigalson
    prodigalson
    ''"1892 ... Someday there will be a large building built in Manhattan that will be framed by this arch."


    I have no expertise on the subject and can add very little to the discussion. But I have read where skyscrapers were aleady being built in Chicago by 1885 with the expectation that there would be many more of far greater height throughout the entire USA. Perhaps the view shown on the Mirador web site was a planned one rather than mere coincidence. It would be very interesting to see what historians have to say about that.
  • richard
    richard
    The 1869 the nation's first statue of Abraham Lincoln was unveiled at the north end of the plaza's axis.
    Facing the 350 Fifth Avenue mansion of William Astor (inheritor of his father's, John Jacob Astor, fortune) Lincoln is pointing to the words 'shall be forever free' in the Emancipation Proclamation he holds.
    After the Arch was started in 1889, the other Astor mansion, at 33rd and Fifth Avenue was razed and the Waldorf Hotel opened in 1893. In 1894, 350 Fifth Avenue (at 34th) was razed and opened as the Astoria Hotel in 1897. Joined, they became the Waldorf Astoria. In 1929 it was demolished an the Empire State Building replaced it, opening in 1931.
  • ringrunner
    ringrunner
    Ya can't see the Empire State Building through the arch in the Afternoon. It is still there, but the morning sun has to be on it.
  • richard
    richard
    On a clear day you can see the tower all day. At night a single street light's glare obstructs the illuminated view. In Summer and Fall foliage blocks the view from the Mirador
  • bradedward
    bradedward
    If you form an arch with your hand and put it directly in your line of sight, you can center the Empire State building beneath an arch anywhere! Try it! God must have known that one day a large building would be built in Manhattan so he gave us the ability to arch our hands and center the building beneath it. It's fate!
  • richard
    richard
    It is not fate. Standing with your back flush against a lamppost in the park
    the Tower's top just brushes the top of the Arch's opening, bisecting the Arch and the figures on top of Bailey Fountain. Bailey Fountain was built at the same time as the Empire State Building. This is a known visual corridor. Extending the line south, through the park, it also crosses the site of Payne's Monument on Sullivan Hill. The 1865 planners of the plaza had it positioned so its axis extended north to the Fifth Avenue mansion of William Astor. And it will precisely bisect Building 6 of Atlantic Yards (which may block the view of the Tower).
  • carnivore
    carnivore
    richard wrote: It is not fate. Standing with your back flush against a lamppost in the park
    the Tower's top just brushes the top of the Arch's opening, bisecting the Arch and the figures on top of Bailey Fountain. Bailey Fountain was built at the same time as the Empire State Building. This is a known visual corridor. Extending the line south, through the park, it also crosses the site of Payne's Monument on Sullivan Hill. The 1865 planners of the plaza had it positioned so its axis extended north to the Fifth Avenue mansion of William Astor. And it will precisely bisect Building 6 of Atlantic Yards (which may block the view of the Tower).
    I would imagine that whether this is true or not for that location depends on the height of the person standing with their back flush against the lamppost.
  • richard
    richard
    True. But give it a try. I've seen parents with children on their shoulders both checking it out. At a distance of over five miles it is a pretty impressive scene.
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