Page 247 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - New York City

F AR THER AFIELD  245

2 Morris-Jumel
Mansion
65 Jumel Terrace at W 160th St and
Edgecombe Ave. Tel (212) 923-8008.
q 163rd St. Open 10am–4pm Tue–
Fri (to 5pm Sat & Sun). Closed public
hols. & 8 noon Sat by appt. =
∑ morrisjumel.org
This is one of New York’s few
pre-Revolutionary buildings.
Now a museum with nine
restored period rooms, it was The 3,500-ft (1,065-m) span of the George Washington Bridge
built in 1765 for Roger Morris.
His former military colleague 3 George who suggested a road bridge
George Washington used it as Washington Bridge rather than the more expensive
temporary headquarters while rail link. Work began in 1927, and
defending Manhattan in 1776. q 175th St. ∑ panynj.gov the bridge was opened in 1931:
In 1810 it was bought and first across were two young
updated by Stephen Jumel, a French architect Le roller skaters from the Bronx.
merchant of French-Caribbean Corbusier called Today it is a vital
descent, and his wife Eliza. this “the only seat link for commuter
The pair furnished the house of grace in the traffic and is in
with souvenirs of their many disordered city.” constant use.
visits to France. Her boudoir While not as famous Gilbert had
has a “dolphin” chair, reputedly a landmark as its plans to clad the
bought from Napoleon. Eliza’s Brooklyn equivalent, two towers with
social climbing and love affairs this bridge by masonry but funds
scandalized New York society. engineer Othmar did not permit it,
It was rumored that she let Ammann and his leaving an elegant
her husband bleed to death architect Cass skeletal structure
in 1832 so she could inherit Gilbert has its 600 ft (183 m) high
his fortune. She later married own character and 3,500 ft
Aaron Burr, aged 77, and and history. Plans (1,067 m) long.
divorced him three years for a bridge linking Ammann had
later on the day he died. Manhattan to New The Little Red Lighthouse also allowed for
The exterior of the Palladian- Jersey had been under Washington Bridge a second deck
style, wood-sided Georgian in the pipeline for in his plan, and
house with Classical portico and more than 60 years before this lower deck was added in
octagonal wing has been restored. the Port of New York Authority 1962, increasing the bridge’s
The museum exhibits include raised the $59 million to fund capacity enormously. Now the
many original Jumel pieces. the project. It was Ammann eastbound toll collection shows
a traffic level of over 53 million
cars per year.
Below the eastern tower
in Fort Washington Park is a
lighthouse that dates from 1889,
and was saved from possible
demolition in 1951 by public
pressure. Many thousands of
young New Yorkers and children
all around the world have loved
the bedtime story The Little Red
Lighthouse and the Great Gray
Bridge (1942), and wrote letters
to save the lighthouse. Author
Hildegarde Hoyt Swift wove the
tale around her two favorite
New York landmarks.
The Little Red Lighthouse
Festival is held here every
September. The event includes
a special guest reading of the
Morris-Jumel Mansion, built in 1765, with its original colossal portico famous book.

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