ally very beautiful. A large
part of it is taken up with the great ravine formerly known as McGowan's
Pass. It was through this wild glen that the beaten and disheartened
fragments of the American army escaped from the city of New York after
their disastrous rout at the battle of Long Island. Close by they were
rallied in time to make a stand at Harlem Plains. On the hills in the
extreme northern part of the park are still to be seen the remains of a
series of earthworks, which have been carefully turfed over, and on one
of these heights, known as The Bluff, is an old stone structure said to
have been used as a block-house or magazine during the war of 1812-15. A
small part of the "old Boston Road" is still to be seen in this portion
of the park, and in the distance a view is to be obtained of the High
Bridge, the Heights of Westchester county, and the Palisades, on the New
Jersey shore of the Hudson, while Washington Heights rise boldly to the
northward. To the eastward one may see the white sails of the vessels in
Long Island Sound, and get a faint glimpse of the town of Flushing, on
Long Island, and New Rochelle, on the mainland, while nearer are Hell
Gate, the picturesque East and Harlem rivers, with their islands and
public buildings, and the lovely little village of Astoria.

The park occupies the centre of the island, from north to south, for a
distance of two miles and a half. The cross streets do not extend
through it, and all vehicles of a business nature are excluded from the
pleasure drives. It was foreseen from the first that it would be
necessary to provide means of communication between the eastern and
western sides of the island, without compelling wagons and trucks to pass
around the upper or lower ends of the enclosure. At the same time it was
felt to be desirable to make these roads as private as possible, so that
the beauty of the park should not be marred by them, or by the long
trains of wagons, carts, and such other vehicles as would pass over them.
The genius of the constructing engineers soon settled this difficulty. A
system of transverse roads was adopted and carried out. There are four
of them, and they cross the park at Sixty-fifth, Seventy-ninth,
Eighty-fifth, and Ninety-seventh streets. They are sunken considerably
below the general level of the park, and are securely walled in with
masonry. Vines, trees, and shrubbery are planted and carefully trained
along the edges of these