Riverside Drive is a scenic north–south thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The road runs on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, generally paralleling the Hudson River and Riverside Park between 72nd Street and the vicinity of the George Washington Bridge at 181st Street. North of 96th Street, Riverside Drive is a wide divided boulevard. At several locations, a serpentine local street diverges from the main road, providing access to the residential buildings. Some of the city's most coveted addresses are located along its route.
The 191 acres (0.77 km2) of land in the original park between 72nd to 125th Streets were originally inhabited by the Lenape people, but by the 18th century were used for farms by the descendants of European colonists.[2]: 68 In 1846, the Hudson River Railroad (later the West Side Line and Hudson Line) was built along the waterfront, connecting New York City to Albany.[3]: 3 [4] In 1865, Central Park commissioner William R. Martin put forth the first proposal for a riverside park along the Hudson River.[3]: 3 [4][5] An act providing for such was presented to the Legislature by commissioner Andrew Haswell Green in 1866 and approved the same year.[6]: 9 The first segment of Riverside Park was acquired through condemnation in 1872.[1] The park also included the construction of Riverside Drive (then known as Riverside Avenue), a tree-lined drive curving around the valleys and rock outcroppings, overlooking the future park and the waterfront. The avenue was laid out in 1868 and was 100 feet (30 m) wide for its entire length.[6]: 9 [7] The plans for Riverside Park and Avenue brought the attention of William M. Tweed, who bought several lots adjacent to the park in anticipation of its construction.[6]: 9
A selection process for the designers of Riverside Park followed, and in 1873 the commissioners selected Frederick Law Olmsted, a park commissioner who had also designed Central Park.[3]: 4 [4] Initially, Riverside Avenue had been planned to run in a straight line, which would have required a retaining wall and extensive fill.[2]: 69 By then, the difficult topography of the area had come to the attention of the Manhattan park commissioners, and in 1873 Olmsted was given the authorization to redesign the grade of Riverside Avenue. To accommodate this, Olmsted devised a new plan that would create a main road extending from 72nd to 123rd Streets, with overpasses at 79th and 96th Streets, as well as "carriage roads" to serve the nearby neighborhood. The grade of the road was not to exceed 1:27.[2]: 71 [6]: 10 [7] Riverside Avenue's main road would contain two roadways, one for each direction, separated by a median. A pedestrian path and a horse path would run alongside the avenue, and trees would provide shade along the route.[2]: 71
Over the following years, work proceeded on Riverside Avenue, with various ramps and stairs to the park as well as a bridle path between 104th and 120th Streets. In 1876 Olmsted was asked to create plans for the design of the avenue as a country drive, but ultimately it was paved. In late 1876, bids were accepted for paving of Riverside Avenue.[6]: 10 Olmsted was ousted as parks superintendent in December 1877.[8] From 1875 to 1910, architects and horticulturalists such as Calvert Vaux and Samuel Parsons laid out the stretch of park/road between 72nd and 125th Streets according to the English gardening ideal, creating the appearance that the park was an extension of the Hudson River Valley.[1] The avenue was opened in 1880 and was well-used by walkers, bikers, and drivers. The viaduct across 96th Street remained incomplete until 1902.[6]: 11 In 1908, the avenue was renamed Riverside Drive.[6]: 10
In the 1930s, New York Central Railroad's rail track north of 72nd Street was covered in a Robert Moses project called the West Side Improvement.[9] Moses' biographer Robert Caro described Moses surveying the area prior to his project, and seeing: