A couple of friends and I decided to take the tram to Roosevelt Island recently to visit FDR's Four Freedoms Park, a 4-acre memorial honoring FDR and, particularly, his inspiring 1941 State of the Union address.
In that speech FDR shared his vision of a world founded upon four essential human freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear.
It was a gorgeous day. Fortunately not windy. I wasn't ready to experience any tram-swaying. I was grateful the car was relatively full on the way out. Bless those people over whose shoulders I could take most of my pix!
Yipes! Feel the sensation?
A little vertigo from the ground up?
This historic building is a former smallpox hospital, designed by James Renwick, Jr.
I couldn't help thinking of the fate of Manderley from Rebecca when I sighted it.
There's a great entryway staircase leading to the memorial bringing one up to get a sweeping view of the four-acre memorial. I was too busy chatting to frame that picture of the steps and snap it. Next visit!!!
The Four Freedoms Park is located in NYC at the south end of the narrow Island between Manhattan and Queens surrounded by the East River. It runs the length of E. 46th St. to 86th St in Manhattan. It was the last design of architect Louis Kahn. It became an official NY state park on October 17, 2012. Tom Brokaw mc'd the event that included Bill Clinton, Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg.
The familiar Pepsi sign of Queens.
The bronze portrait of FDR was sculpted from life by Jo Davidson in 1933.
I love this shot in particular.
An excerpt from the "four freedoms state of the union address" was chiseled into this granite block at the rate of 15 letters a day.
This area below is called "The Room," a lovely white promenade at the tip of the island. It has been compared to a roofless Greek temple, roofless to let in the magnificent sky and horizon. I found it more inconveniently blocking to the FULL horizon, though I enjoyed its glowing whiteness against the bright blue sky. There was also a comforting sense of peace and comraderie from the leisurely moving and soft voiced visitors around me.
Still, I felt those gulls on their nearby East River rock formations had a far fuller view than the rest of us. My camera was hungry for an unencumbered horizon. I couldn't complain, though, since the walkway from and back to the tram certainly satisfied that hunger, as did both tram rides!
The lawn leading to the white waterfront promenade is bordered by 120 Littleleaf Linden trees. (That tiny little sign asks you not to walk on the recently seeded grass.)
I thought this was a rather unique shot. Roosevelt Island is located directly under the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. The island is not directly accessible by the bridge, but by tram or subway. Apparently the F train beneath Roosevelt Island is one of the deepest stations below sea level (100 feet) in the NYC Subway system.
Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, is a former resident of Roosevelt Island. Buddy Hackett and Al Lewis (Grandpa in The Munsters) (both now deceased) lived on the island. Sarah Jessice Parker is also an ex-resident. Actress Sonia Braga lives on the island presently.
I want to go back and do more exploring. This little island is steeped in the history of human challenge. A small pox hospital existed there. A penitentiary. Several hospitals. The New York City Lunatic Asylum where Nellie Bly posed as a patient to do undercover reporting.
Emma Goldman was imprisoned on the island for anarchistic, pro-birth control and anti WW I draft activities. Boss Tweed spent a year imprisoned for corruption. Mae West served 8 days on an obscenity charge for her play "Sex." Billie Holiday was locked up there for prostitution.
The opening chapter of Steven Crane's 1983 novelette, "Maggie, A Girl of the Streets" refers picturesquely to "a worm of yellow convicts" emerging from a prison building on the island.
In his 1904 short story "The Cop and the Anthem" O'Henry created a homeless man named Soapy who strove to get arrested so he could spend the harsh winter in Blackwell's (name before "Welfare" and then "Roosevelt") Island prison.
Catch the security cam on the old-fashioned lamp post? New fashioned surveillance. Grrrr.
Much of the island is car free, with bright red MTA buses between the island and Queens. About 12,000 people are said to live on Roosevelt Island.
One of my friends, who has visited the island many times, complained that to him there was something jarring and tinny about the sound on the island. He wasn't sure why. I was not able to discern this.
My friend also shared that this small community on the narrow island always reminds him of that sinister little town in the old tv show with Patrick McGoohan, "The Prisoner". Anybody remember?
I found this a rather unique and unsettling comparison. Hard to stop thinking about that once he had introduced it.
Especially funny, later in the week, when I mentioned visiting Roosevelt Island to a coworker he immediately blurted out, "Oh, yeah. It always reminds me of that town in the old show, The Prisoner."
Not such a unique comparison after all, apparently! Though I didn't notice any numbered sociopathic authoritarian speeding by me in a bubble car. I did see a hybrid of white golf cart and compact, however, probably used by security people there.
The shot of this great tree was taken while exiting a discreet looking Starbuck's.
This island is truly the photographer's friend!
The tip of FDR Four Freedoms Park looks out on the UN. This looked like a nice spot to breathe in the Manhattan horizon in "The Room". There's a photo contest of pix of the park that closes the end of October. I may submit this picture or go back and capture a few more.
Is this wheel the main thing (with its Manhattan twin) holding us tram travellers up? I chose not to dwell on that on the way back.
The return tram car was nearly empty. My friends had chosen to jump on the F train. As I stood taking pictures from the window in the front of the car as it began its descent toward 2nd Avenue, Manhattan, a wave of vertigo enveloped me. My stomach flipped, my ears began to ring, my knees to buckle. A bit of bile in the back of my throat.
I was rescued by an intrepid toddler who had escaped her parents, bumped into my knees and climbed up on a plastic bench, insinuating herself between me and the alarming -- to me, not her -- dramatic, bird's eye view.
What a wuss am I, comparatively speaking!
[Most of my factual commentary was based on offerings from wikipedia about Roosevelt Island and Four Freedoms Park, my friends' general knowledge and the park's brochure.]
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