| THE PALISADES INTERSTATE PARKWAY, A NATIONAL LANDMARK: In 1998, the National Park Service nominated the Palisades Interstate Parkway in its National Register of Historic Places.
In their submission for the inclusion of the parkway in the National Register, Susan Smith, Regional Historic Restoration Coordinator for the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, and Kathleen LaFrank, Historic Preservation Resource Specialist for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, wrote the following summary:The Palisades Interstate Parkway is exceptionally significant in the themes of conservation, recreation, transportation and regional planning for its role in the conservation of a significant endangered landscape, the development and promotion of recreation, and regional land use planning. The parkway is also significant in the areas of architecture, landscape architecture and engineering as an outstanding example of a post-World War II limited-access, scenic pleasure drive in New York and New Jersey. The period of significance recognizes the first major donation of land for conservation and parkway purposes in 1935, the continued acquisition of additional land over the next thirteen years and the construction of the parkway between 1947and 1961.The nomination also takes in several features that pre-date the period of significance. These have significance as they were reused or reinterpreted within the context of the parkway.
The Palisades Interstate Parkway marked the completion of a progressive and influential conservation project to preserve and restore the dramatic escarpment along the lower west bank of the Hudson River. Beginning in 1900 with the formation of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission (PIPC), the states of New York and New Jersey commenced a cooperative effort to acquire and preserve a large tract of the Palisades that was threatened by quarrying operations. A small portion of the Palisades Interstate Park (approximately 3,000 acres) has been recognized as a National Historic Landmark in the theme of conservation. Over the next fifty years, the PIPC acquired nearly 60,000 acres of parkland and developed a complex, influential and nationally significant conservation and recreation program.
By the late 1920s, one of the PIPC's most important concerns was the strip of land atop the escarpment, which remained in private hands and was increasingly threatened by burgeoning suburban development in the New York City metropolitan region. Based in part on recommendations contained in the Regional Plan for New York and Environs, a comprehensive regional planning study undertaken during the mid-1920s, the PIPC concluded that the construction of a parkway along the top of the cliffs was the most efficient, economical and permanent way to preserve and maintain the Palisades in their natural condition, "providing a convenient and safe means for people, while passing through, to see and enjoy the natural beauties without damaging that which they have come to see." Although it took the commission twenty years to acquire land and finance construction, the parkway was completed with its original goals and design standards. Described by its planners as a "continuous park" for pleasure cars, the Palisades Parkway combined conservation efforts with recreational, regional planning and transportation initiatives. The parkway provided metropolitan New Yorkers with convenient access to thousands of acres of parkland; it was planned as a major link in a recreation-transportation corridor that stretched from the southern tip of New Jersey to Bear Mountain State Park; it served to complete New York State's regional system of parks and parkways in the Hudson Valley; and it was an important regional planning initiative, encouraging orderly suburban growth while directing development away from the most fragile and scenic areas and preserving them for public benefit.
The Palisades Parkway is also an outstanding example of its type. Its design embodies the definitive characteristics of the limited-access scenic pleasure drive, repeating and improving upon the features of the parkways developed over the course of the first half of the twentieth century. The parkway is defined by restricted access, the elimination of cross traffic, a broad landscaped right-of-way, fully separated driving lanes at different elevations, generously banked curves, crisp sunken roadways defined by mountable curbs, contrasting tones and pavement and curbs, and connections to scenic and recreational attractions, both on the parkway and in the adjacent parkland. The design of the parkway is based on concepts developed by park personnel, regional planners, engineers, landscape architects and philanthropists. Among them, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. played a pivotal role in donating a significant amount of land and money, and facilitating the complex political process that brought the project to completin. Those sharing primary responsibility for developing the concept, route and design of the parkway include Major William A. Welch, a nationally known engineer and park designer who served as the PIPC's chief engineer for twenty-three years, the various planners and engineers of the Regional Plan Committee (including Jay Downer, chief engineer for the Bronx River Parkway), the well-known engineering firm of Amman and Combs, and the influential landscape architects and parkway designers Clarke, Rapuano and Holleran.
The Palisades Interstate Parkway is regarded as one of the finest examples of its type. It has been cited for its excellence by critics and historians, and has been called an "outstanding example" and a "triumph of understanding engineering� technically brilliant in design." Retaining a high level of functional and design integrity, the parkway continues to meet the goals of its designers. | |
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