Rockefeller Lookout Panorama

Rockefeller Lookout Panorama. . , Section 1: , Now a public garden and cultural center, Wave Hill, with its sweeping views of the Palisades, was a summer home to the family of future United States president Theodore Roosevelt and later to author Mark Twain. , In 1900, when he was governor of New York, Roosevelt signed legislation that permitted his state to join with New Jersey to form the Palisades Interstate Park Commission – preserving the world-famous view he came to know as a boy. , In 1903, George W. Perkins made his home at Wave Hill. Perkins was a leader in the fight to preserve the Palisades and serves as president of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission until his death in 1920. Perkins Memorial Tower at Bear mountain was named for him. , Section 2: , On the river near this spot in September 1609, the Dutch sailing vessel HALF MOON met and traded with native tribes. Though they never found the “Northwest Passage” to the Pacific that they were looking for, the crew brought home reports of a rich and fertile river valley – populated by tribes willing to trade valuable furs for European goods. The river was later named for the ship’s captain, HENRY HUDSON. , Section 3 , Sputyen Duyvil Creek, which connects the Hudson River to the Harlem River, forms the northern border of Manhattan. (From this view, Manhattan is to the right of the creek, The Bronx to the left and beyond.) “Spuyten Duyvil” means “Devil’s Sport” in Dutch. , A crossing at Spuyten Duyvil, called Kingsbridge, was established in Colonial days (this is now Broadway – not visible from here). The first railroad bridge across this waterway was built in 1849 and replaced in 1900 by a steel swing bridge. By 2013, about thirty trains crossed this bridge each day, and it was opened more than a thousand times a year to permit boat traffic to pass. , Henry Hudson Bridge first opened for automobile traffic in 1936 – at which time it was the longest fixed arch bridge in the world., Section 4 , The Cloisters, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was established through an endowment by John D. Rockefeller Jr. (for whom this lookout is named). In the 1930s, The Cloisters was built from medieval buildings disassembled in Europe and shipped to New York to be reconstructed in Upper Manhattan. , Rockefeller donated much of his own art collection to the museum., Section 5 , Made famous by the 1942 children’s book THE LITTLE RED LIGHTHOUSE AND THE GREAT GRAY BRIDGE by Hildegard Swift and illustrated by Lynd Ward, the Jeffrey’s Hook Light guided river traffic by its rock shoreline from 1921 to 1947. When New York City announced that the lighthouse would be dismantled, public protest – including thousands of letters from schoolchildren – led to its preservation.