Gothic Bridge (94th street)Reservoir Bridge (West 94th Street) #28- Often called "Gothic Bridge" because of its reference to Gothic design, it is officially known as Bridge No. 28 and was designed in 1864. Spanning the bridle path between northern Reservoir and the tennis courts, it is one of the most impressive bridges designed by Calvert Vaux and the Cornell Ironworks. Made of cast iron and steel. Gothic Bridge is the third of the great Central Park cast iron bridges around the Reservoir. In the first decades of the Park, before auto traffic, there was a great deal more recreational equestrian traffic in the park, and so the builders endowed the bridle paths with quite a number of arches and bridges that would enable pedestrians to pass over them. The triangular spaces at each end of Gothic Bridge (called spandrels) were given curved ironwork suggestive of Gothic church architecture of the Middle Ages, hence the bridge’s name. The graceful curves and oval vault make Gothic one of the most distinctive bridges in the park and one of the first that photo editors turn to when they require an evocative Central Park scene.
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AuthorCHARLES PEARSON Archives
December 2021
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