pp. 56-69 in Antonio Sergio Bessa, ed. (2009) Intersections: The Grand Concourse at 100. New York: Fordham University Press & The Bronx Museum of the Arts. BOLD VISION: Offprint for personal use only, LOUIS RISSE'S GRAND PLAN courtesy of the author. Copyright © Fordham University Press FOR THE CONCOURSE Ray romley The design and building of the Grand Concourse in the Bronx are framed within a much broader economic, geopolitical, and demographic narrative, the growth of the city of New York to become one of the largest and most important cities in the world. From a tiny Dutch colony established in 1625 at the southern tip of Manhattan, New York grew to become a global economic hub, and by the 1950s it was the center of the most populous metropolitan region in the world.^ Though now overtaken in population by several major cities in other countries, New York is still unquestionably "a world city" of enormous importance. Between 1790 and 1 8 9 0 , the population of New York City rose from just over 33,000 to over 1.5 million.^ By 1900, with further growth and immigration, and with the incorporation of the populations of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the East Bronx, it exceeded 3.4 million. By 1950 it was 7.89 million. Meanwhile, the population of the United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2003 Bronx grew from about 89,000 in 1890 to 1.45 million in 1950. The massive growth of Revision (New York: United Nations), 2 5 8 - 6 1 . New York City and the population of the Bronx between the 1890s and the 1950s and 2 the design and implementation of the Grand Concourse project that facilitated some of Demographic information in this paragraph is from Ira that growth were supported by six major projects of the nineteenth century: Rosenwaike, Population History of New York City (Syra- cuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1972). First, the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which created the basis for Manhattan's 3 John W. Reps, The Mal<ing of Urban America (Princeton, grid and the extension of the city street system from Houston Street almost to the N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1965), 2 9 4 - 9 9 . northern tip of Manhattan.^ 56 mtersections The Grand Concourse at 100 ill  Second, the construction of the Erie Canal, opened in 1825, which gave New York City a long-term advantage over all the other eastern seaboard cities for trade with North America's interior. The ensuing growth in commerce led to successive ex- pansions of the canal, and also to the construction of the New York Central Railroad.'' Third, the construction of the Croton Dam and Aqueduct between 1837 and 1848, bringing abundant fresh potable water to Manhattan and dramatically improv- ing public health. Quite soon, however, population growth led to water shortages, and the system bringing water to the city through the Bronx has been expanded several times, beginning with the opening of the New Croton Aqueduct in 1891.^ Fourth, the construction of Central Park between 1857 and 1863, giving New York City a world-ranking amenity and dramatically increasing public support for parks and outdoor recreation.*^ Fifth, the consolidation of the Greater City of New York, starting with the Great North Side (the West Bronx) in 1874, continuing with the East Bronx in 1895, and incorporating Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island on January 1st 1898.^ Sixth, the plan for the new parks beyond the Harlem River, signed into law in 1884, creating the basis for land expropriation, landscape preparation, and the addition of 3,840 acres of parkland to the city. Four large parks were created: Van Cortlandt, Bronx, Crotona, and Peiham Bay, to be linked by the Mosholu, Crotona, and Pelham parkways; two smaller parks were also included, Claremont and St. Mary's.^ These six momentous changes in the nineteenth century endowed New York with the regional and international trade links necessary for economic expansion and the land and in- frastructure necessary to facilitate rapid long-term urban expansion. Many additional chang- 4 es were intenwoven, of course, including the tenement laws; growing awareness of sanitation Peter L. Bernstein, Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation (New Yorl<: W. and public health; the expansion of educational, health care, and social service; outdoor W. Norton, 2006). recreation programs; and the development of the seaport and the mass transit system. 5 The impact of New York's great nineteenth-century projects was primarily directed Charles H. Weidner, Water for a City (New Brunswick. northward, to ensure the full development of Manhattan island, and to develop the West N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1974). Bronx as a northward expansion of Manhattan and a corridor linking Manhattan with up- 6 state. New England, and freshwater sources. Northward expansion was easy and logical, Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar, The Park and not only because of the attractions of the Bronx and other mainland areas of New York the People: A History of Central Park (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1992). state but also because of the disadvantages of areas to the west, east, and south. The Harlem River was narrow and easy to bridge, while the Hudson River and the East River 7 David C. Hammack, Power and Society (New York: Rus- posed major engineering problems and meant very high costs for bridge-building and sell Sage Foundation, 1982), 185-229. tunneling. To the residents of New York City, New Jersey was a rival state, and Brooklyn, S before consolidation, was a rival city. Long Island offered ample room for expansion but John Mullaly, The New Parks Beyond the Harlem (New no obvious trade routes to more distant areas and no substantial freshwater reserves. York: Record and Guide, 1887). Ray Bromley Bold Vision: Louis R i s s e Grand Plan 57  By the 1870s, two axes of northward expansion were clearly evident. The prin- cipal axis ran from East Harlem, up the central valley of the West Bronx, with a strip of urban development stretching from Mott Haven through Melrose, Morrisania, and Tremont, and on to Bathgate, West Farms, Belmont, and Fordham. The secondary axis ran from northern Manhattan into High Bridge, Kingsbridge, and Riverdale.^ Transpor- tation links were gradually expanded to parallel these developments, starting with horsecars and railroads and leading on to the construction of subways and elevated trains. Between the two axes, however, was an open ridge oriented north to south and averaging about 160 feet above sea level. This ridge was the one that Louis Risse proposed as the axis of the Grand Concourse, taking advantage of the same physical features that had made the Bronx the focus for the 1880s expansion of the New York City park system: topography, tree cover, and low population densities, all of which facili- tated the creation of "natural parks"—beautiful landscaped areas at very modest cost. Perhaps the greatest visionary for the northward expansion of New York and the incor- poration of the Bronx into the city was Andrew Haswell Green (1820-1903), most notably through his work as President and Comptroller of the Central Park Commission, then Emer- gency City Comptroller, President of the Consolidation Inquiry Committee, and one of the drafters of the Consolidation Law of 1895.^° Almost as central as Green to the whole process were Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) and Calvert Vaux (1824-1895). Their design for Central Park incorporated a globally significant innovation: grade-separated transportation networks for freight carriages, passenger carriages, horseback riders, and pedestrians, using bridges and tunnels so as to minimize the possibility of congestion and accidents.Most important of all, they sank the four transverse freight highways running west-east across the 9 park so that city commercial traffic could run below the recreational carriage, horseback, and Eric Homberger, The Historical Atlas of New York City pedestrian flows of the park. Later, between 1868 and 1870, with pilot projects in Brooklyn (New York: Henry Holt, 1994), 124. and Buffalo, they developed another major innovation, the parkway, as a tree-lined boulevard 10 leading from residential neighborhoods into parks, or connecting parks. This led directly to John Foord, The Life and Public Services of Andrew Haswell Green (Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, Page & Olmsted's vision of a metropolitan regional park system, whereby all major city parks would Co., 1913). be connected to one another by parkways that would also lead out of the city to the rural ar- 11 eas beyond.^2 To create such a system for New York, many new parkway axes were needed. Charles E. Beveridge and David Schuyler, eds., The John Mullaly (1835-1915), who founded the New York Park Association in 1 8 8 1 , Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, Volume III: Creating Central Park 1857-1861 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins became the most important campaigner for a metropolitan regional park system. He University Press, 1983). campaigned for "the New Parks beyond the Harlem (River)," and his legislative success 12 helped create the rationale for Risse's "great connector"—the Grand Concourse, linking Charles E. Beveridge and Carolyn F Hoffman, eds., The the parks, grand avenues, and speedways of Manhattan with the new parks and parkways Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, Supplementary Series, of the North Bronx. Since its formal creation in 1898, the borough of the Bronx has had Volume I: Writings on Public Parks, Parkways, and Park Systems (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, the highest proportion of parkland of any of New York City's five boroughs. Mullaly sum- 1997), 1 1 2 - 4 6 and 171-205. marized his parks plan for the Bronx as offering "nearly 4,000 acres of free playground 58 intersections The Grand Concourse at 100 for the people [with] abundant space for a Parade Ground, a Rifle Range, Base Ball, La- crosse, Polo, Tennis and all athletic games; picnic and excursion parties, and nine miles of waterfront for bathing, fishing, yachting and rowing." In the 1890s the Bronx's outdoor recreational potential was further enhanced by the projects for the First Municipal Golf Course in Van Cortlandt Park, and for the Zoo and Botanical Garden in Bronx Park. By the early twentieth century, the Bronx offered the widest range of opportunities in the five boroughs for New Yorkers seeking spacious living and outdoor recreation. RISSE AND THE GRAND CONCOURSE Louis Risse (1850-1925) conceived the idea of the Grand Concourse in the early 1870s, prepared detailed plans in 1892, and watched a scaled-down version of the project being constructed between 1902 and 1909. By the 1920s the Concourse was a prestigious growth axis and centerpiece for the borough of the Bronx, yet what it came to be was very different from what Risse had originally envisioned. Risse intended the Concourse to be a Grand Boulevard, and also a speedway for horseback riding, bicycling, and horse-drawn carriages, running along the crest of a ridge. He envisioned the construction of Victorian-style upper-middle-class single-family dwellings on both sides of the Concourse, widely spaced so that there would be many opportunities for the Concourse dwellers and visitors to look across the adjacent val- leys to the hilltops of Morrisania to the east, and northern Manhattan, Riverdale, and UlS ALOYS RISSE northern New Jersey to the west. In Risse's view, the Concourse would merit its name otographer unknown not because of the density of inhabitants in the surrounding area but because of the e Bronx County Historical Society Collections number of people who would come from other areas to enjoy riding along its axis. Risse's 1892 design for the Concourse was quickly overtaken by technologies and events that he failed to anticipate: the invention of the automobile, the massive scale of real estate development in and around New York City after the consolidation of the Greater City of New York in 1898, the rapid growth of the New York City mass transit system, and the mercurial population growth of the Bronx between the 1890s and the 1920s. His Concourse became a vital axis and a Grand Boulevard, but for cars rather than for horse-drawn carriages, and for hundreds of thousands of Bronxites, rather than for thousands of middle-to upper-class Manhattanites heading for the parks and parkways of the North Bronx. In its worst moments, his Concourse became a speedway—not for trotting, cantering, and galloping horses, but for speeding motorists. Though Risse did not plan his Concourse for automobiles, apartment buildings, and dense urban development, he lived long enough to see all these changes. His October 1892 cross-section sketch of the projected Concourse, with four wide roadways and three planted medians, all dedicated to horse-drawn carriages, horseback riders, and pedestrians, was Ray Bromley Bold Vision: Louis R i s s e Grand Plan 59  J! 1 j even crudely redrawn in the early twentieth century with the two center roadways reserved for automobiles. What Risse thought of the impact of cars and higher building densities on the Concourse we may never know. Apparently, there is no archive of his papers, and no publication that records his views toward the end of his life. Perhaps more information will come to light, but for the moment the main clue to Risse's later views is his other great project, the General Map of the City of New York exhibited at the Exposition Universeile, the World's Fair held in Paris in 1900, and subsequently at the South Carolina Interstate and West Indian Exposition held in Charleston, and at the Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo." The map was enormous, covering 837 square feet, and it depicted both the cur- rent spread of urban development in New York City and a projected street and open space system for all the undeveloped portions of the urban area. In his accompanying report to the Board of Public Improvements, Risse envisioned the city's population rising to 20 mil- lion, more than double its current (2009) size, and a total that would certainly require a predominance of apartment buildings, rather than single-family dwellings, in Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. Risse described his vision for the expanded city as follows: Unquestionably the most interesting and imposing feature of the whole production is the tentative or proposed layout of an immense street system. This magnificent system, with its rectangular network of broad streets, diagonally intersecting bou- levards, public squares and parks, canals, viaducts and bridges, and spreading areas divided up into large sections for residential and commercial purposes and systematically laid out with reference to the future requirements of large cities, in economy of construction and sanitary improvements, is in its complexity of plan and vastness of extent without a precedent in the history of civilized society.^'* Risse shared and built upon the visions of Andrew Haswell Green, Frederick Law Olmsted, Calvert Vaux, and John Mullaly, advocating through his Concourse project and his monumental map of the Consolidated City a grid-planned city with wide streets and superimposed diagonal boulevards, with traffic circles at the intersection of boulevards, and with many parks, parkways, and sites for monuments. Both his design for the Con- course and his map of the Consolidated City were exercises in civic boosterism, seeking to build support for ambitious projects and long-term, ongoing urban expansion. His 13 ultimate objective, without doubt, was to make New York the premier world city. Paul E. Cohen and Robert T. Augustyn, Manhattan in Maps 1527-1995 (New York: Rizzoli, 1997), 1 4 4 - 4 7 . JOHN C. DE LA VERGNE, THE KEY BACKER 14 Frederick Gutheim, "Anniversary Recalls City's Debt to Louis A. Risse, Its First Mapper," New York Herald Most histories of the Bronx note that three men named Louis played leading roles in Tribune, June 13th, section 6, 1 (1948). developing the street system of the emerging borough, and Louis A. Risse's Concourse 60 intersections The Grand Concourse at 100  project might never have been implemented without the involvement of the other two: Louis J. Heintz (1861-1893), who supervised Risse's design study and then died at the age of 31, and Louis F. Haffen (1854-1935), who succeeded Heintz as Commissioner of Street Improvements and went on to become the borough's first president, starting January 1st 1898, and to oversee the construction of the Concourse between 1902 and 1909. Accused of corruption in the allocation of construction contracts, Haffen was pushed out of office by Governor Charles Evans Hughes and Mayor George B. McClellan just a few weeks before the Concourse was inaugurated.^^ Because Risse had worked for Haffen, he may also have been marginalized from the inauguration by John F Murray, Haffen's successor as borough president. Less well known than the three engineers named Louis, but also very significant to the Concourse project, was a Bronx businessman, John C. De La Vergne (1840-1896), who, with his brother Lewis E. De La Vergne, owned and managed the De La Vergne Refrigerating Machine Company, based in Port Morris in the Bronx. John C. De La Vergne became the first president of the North Side Board of Trade (the precursor of the Bronx Board of Trade) and a leading civic booster for Bronx projects. The members of the De La Vergne family were descendants of French immigrants to the Hudson Valley region, and John gave $1,000 and helped raise another $4,000 to support Louis Risse's work in preparing the detailed plans for the Grand Concourse.^® Subsequently, in 1 8 9 4 , John C. De La Vergne traveled to Albany to lobby successfully for the state legislation necessary to support the land acquisition and funding for the Concourse. In his 1894 inaugural address to the North Side Board of Trade, he praised another immigrant French engineer, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, who had prepared a plan for the new capital of the United States, Washington, D.C., in the early 1790s. Describing.Washington, De La Vergne said: 15 Alfred Connable and Edward Silberfarb, Tigers of Tam- many (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967), Its broad streets and avenues, its numerous small parks, and the skillful arrange- 245; Wallace MacFarlane, Commissioner, Report Before ment of the lines of its streets make it one of the most beautiful and admired of tfie Governor of the State of New York in the Matter of the cities in the world. Charges Preferred Against Louis F. Haffen, President of the Borough of the Bronx of the City of New York (Albany: New York State, 1909). Moving on to the Bronx, he argued, 16 Louis A. Risse, The True History of the Conception and We should be able to direct the course of development on the North Side so that Planning of the Grand Boulevard and Concourse (1893), eventually we will have an established business and residence community living in reprinted in this volume. a city whose physical aspects will be unexcelled the world over. With the vast extent 17 of unoccupied land in the district, as well as in that portion of Westchester County John W. Reps, Washington on View: The Nation's Capital Since 1790 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina east of the Bronx, which will surely become part of our city, we have opportunities Press, 1991). for the establishment of broad and roomy streets, venues and boulevards, which 62 intersections The Grand Concourse at 100  should demand our earnest attention. The water front on the North, Harlem and East Rivers, and especially the latter, is a most inviting one for ship- ping interests... The scope of our task should be to make the North Side the most important and attractive part of the City of New York.^s Until his death in 1896 at the relatively young age of 55, John C. De La Vergne was a vigorous campaigner for Bronx projects, most notably the canalization of the Harlem PRESENT CROSS SECTION River, new Harlem River bridges, and the Grand Concourse.Nevertheless, he had interests that stretched far beyond the bor- ough. His family were upstate landowners around the village of Esperance, west of Albany, and he was president of the Arizona SPEEDWAY CONCOURSE, 1912 Cattle Company and a director of several other corporations. In his will he named his wife Ink on paper The Bronx County Historical Society Collections and Jacob Ruppert Sr. (1842-1915), the brewing entrepreneur, as his executors. Eight days after De La Vergne's death, Jacob Ruppert Sr. was also elected president of the De La Vergne Refrigerating Machine Company.The Ruppert family eventually went on to play a major role in the growth of the Bronx because Jacob Ruppert's son. Colonel Jacob Ruppert Jr. (1867-1939), became co-owner of the New York Yankees in 1915 and sole owner from 1922 till 1939. He chose to build the Yankee Stadium close to the Concourse, and he presided over the most successful team in the history of Major League Baseball. In 1895 the De La Vergne brothers entered a car in the first long-distance au- John C. De La Vergne, /Address of John C. De La Vergne, tomobile race ever held in the United States, the Thanksgiving Day fifty-four-mile Au- President of the North Side Board of Trade, Delivered to-Speed Race from Chicago to Evanston.^^ Because of a heavy snowfall, their car at Its First IVIeeting Held at the IVlelrose Lyceum (New could not complete the race, but by involving themselves in such an event they sig- York: North Side Board of Trade, 1894). naled very clearly that their interest in grand boulevards went far beyond the needs of bicyclists and horse-drawn carriage riders. The De La Vergnes were automobiling North Side Board of Trade, In Memory of John C. De La Vergne (New York: North Side Board of Trade, 1896). pioneers, and clearly they saw the Concourse as a future automobile promenade. There is no evidence that Louis Risse had any interest in automobile racing, but there 20 Anon. "John C. De La Vergne Deceased." Ice and Re- can be little doubt that he became increasingly aware of "the horseless carriage" as he frigeration 10, 6 (1896): 387-8. watched his Grand Concourse project move from design to reality, and as he developed his 21 1900 Plan for the Greater Consolidated City. The Concourse was a public works project, Dorothy Garven, The Dillivans (Los Angeles: Alder Tree focusing on the boulevard axis and its underpasses, and that was what was constructed Press, 1979), 3 7 - 4 3 . Ray Bromley Bold V i s i o n : Louis R i s s e Grand P l a n S3  BRIDGE AT BELMONT STREET, 1875 Ink on paper The Bronx County Historical Society Collections between 1902 and 1909 under the general oversight of Louis F. Haffen—a sophisticated boulevard with underpasses. The project had no control over the development of the adjacent parcels of land, and no powers or funding to build the Victorian villas that Risse had fancifully sketched onto his artist's impressions of the future Concourse. Thus, in the transition from 1890s project to 1920s Concourse, the horse-drawn carriages were replaced by automobiles, and the Victorian villas were replaced by six- to nine-story apart- ment buildings. Risse's pioneering vision and the reality he saw in his final years were very different. The Concourse was adapted to increasing densities of population, construction, and traffic, and to a pace of urban expansion that, by the 1920s, may have exceeded the expectations of such past pioneers as Andrew Haswell Green, Frederick Law Olmsted, Calvert Vaux, John Mullaly, Louis Heintz, and John C. De La Vergne. THE MANHATTAN CONNECTION Risse envisioned the Concourse as part of a long-distance link between Washington Square Park in Manhattan's Greenwich Village and the new Van Cortlandt, Bronx, and Evelyn Diaz Gonzalez, The Bronx (New York: Columbia Pelham Bay parks. The key connecting axis was Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, which ran University Press, 2004), 8 0 - 9 3 . directly north from Washington Square Park to the southeastern corner of Central Park, 64 s.-ss-srsaeSses-.i The Grand Concourse at 100 and then along the east side of Central Park to Mount Morris Park (renamed Marcus Garvey Park in 1973) and on northward to the axis of the Harlem River Drive. From West 155th Street northward, that axis was soon to become the Harlem River Speedway, a custom-built three-mile axis for horseback riding and horse-drawn carriages initiated in 1892, completed in 1898, and running up to West 208th Street in Manhattan.^^ The Harlem River Speedway closely followed the west bank of the Harlem River, having a 95-foot dedicated roadway, set within an axis varying between 125 and 150 feet in width. By the 1930s, proposals were under discussion to replace the old Harlem River Drive, including the Speedway, with an automobile parkway, and that project was even- tually completed in 1964. In Risse's time, however, the Speedway was "state of the art" and a key project for New York's horse-loving elite, and Risse gave it much broader significance with his vision of a seamless horse-riding and carriage connection from Washington Park all the way to the Speedway and to the Concourse and the great parks of the North Bronx. Risse may well have preferred to move all speedway activity over to the Concourse, which offered a longer axis, better views, and protection from com- mercial traffic crossing the axis, but he wanted the Harlem River Drive axis to serve as a boulevard to facilitate the link from Fifth Avenue to the Concourse. From the Harlem River Drive axis to the Concourse, the key connector was the Macombs Dam Bridge, which connected Manhattan's West 155th Street to the Bronx's East 161st Street, and a short segment of East 161st Street from the river to the top of the ridge. Atoll bridge at Macombs Dam had been completed in 1814, and in 1861 it was replaced by a new toll-free bridge. Eventually in 1895 the second Macombs Dam Bridge was replaced by the present structure, which has been substantially modified since its initial construction. In 1927 an alternative connection from Fifth Avenue to the Concourse emerged with the completion of the one-mile-southward extension of the Grand Concourse along the Mott Avenue axis from East 161st Street to East 138th Street in the Bronx. As a result of this project, the 138th Street (Madison Avenue) Bridge, completed in 1884 and replaced by a new bridge in 1910, became an alternative to the Macombs Dam Bridge. Fifth Avenue was certainly a fitting complement to Risse's projected Grand Con- course. By the late nineteenth century, it was already the location of choice for elite and luxurious stores, major public institutions, mansions, and upmarket apartment houses. It was narrower than the projected Concourse over most of its length, and it did not have 23 the street trees and planted medians featured in the designs for the Concourse and the Anon., "Harlem River Speedway," Scientific American, 76, no. 6, Feb. 6, 8 1 - 2 and 8 9 - 9 0 , and no. 7, Feb. Mosholu and Pelham Bay parkways, but it already had many impressive buildings and 13, 9 7 - 9 8 (1897). plenty of pedestrian traffic. Had it been reserved for horse-drawn carriages, horseback 24 riders, bicyclists, and pedestrians, it could have served as a magnificent Grand Boulevard Sharon Reier, T/ie Bridges of New Vort (New York: Quad- and Concourse for Manhattan. From Washington Park to its northern terminus at 138th rant Press, 1977). Ray Bromley Bold Vision: Louis R i s s e Grand Plan 65  Street, Fifth Avenue provides an impressive 6.75-mile corridor, and from that northern tip it was just one additional mile to the beginning of Risse's projected Concourse at 161st Street. In turn, a 4.25-mile journey up the Concourse would connect to Mosholu Parkway, and a half mile beyond was the entrance to Van Cortlandt Park. From Washington Square Park to Van Cortlandt Park would be a 12.5-mile.journey, or a 25-mile round-trip, a bracing opportunity for a day-long excursion in a horse-drawn carriage. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RISSE'S UNDERPASSES When Risse envisaged and designed the Concourse, grade separation was still a little- known and little-used concept. Olmsted and Vaux had pioneered the idea in their Green- sward Plan for Central Park, but the Concourse was the first large-scale application of the idea to city streets in North America. By the 1920s and 1930s, grade separation became customary in designs for the superhighways of the future, but in the 1890s it was a highly innovative concept. Risse initially envisaged 23 underpasses for the 4.25-mile Concourse axis, but he eventually was forced to cut the number to 9 so as to reduce the cost of the project.^^ His underpasses carried a high initial cost because of all the earth moving that was in- volved, but they brought major long-term dividends in the avoidance of accidents at grade crossings, in the reduction of congestion, in reduced effort for pedestrians and horses, and reduced fuel consumption for vehicles in ascending and descending steep slopes. In Risse's initial vision, the underpasses guaranteed the integrity of the Concourse as a south-north recreational axis, forming the spine of a residential neighborhood. It separated out the "commercial" traffic and activity that would pass east-west under the Concourse. That commercial traffic serviced the Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood neighbor- hoods of northern Manhattan; the Hudson, Harlem, and East river waterfronts; and the densely populated and industrialized areas of the Bronx along the Harlem Railroad and Third Avenue. Just as Olmsted and Vaux's four sunken transverse freight highways across Central Park linked the Hudson and East river waterfronts, Risse's underpasses linked waterfronts and facilitated trans-shipment of marine cargo, construction materials, and such bulky items as grain, beer barrels, and furniture. Without a doubt, major Bronx indus- tries like the De La Vergne refrigeration plant and the Haffen brewery benefited from the 25 underpasses, especially in servicing the rapidly expanding German- and Irish-American Louis A. Risse, History in Brief of ttie Conception and populations of northern Manhattan. Estabiisliment of tiie Grand Boulevard and Concourse (1897), reprinted in this volume. Risse's underpasses were precursors of not only twentieth-century grade separation, flyovers, underpasses, and cloverleaves but also of a twentieth-century land use plan- 26 Edw^ard M. Bassett, Zoning (New York: Russell Sage ning idea—zoning—that was pioneered in New York, with the first legislation approved in Foundation, 1936). 1916.2^ The aim was to separate industrial and associated commercial activities from 66 intersections The Grand Concourse at 100 SPEEDWAY CONCOURSE AND TRANSVERSE ROAD Ink on paper The Bronx County Historical Society Collections Ray Bromley Visian: Lotiis K i s s e Grastd '?faa 67  residential neighborhoods and to ensure that residential areas were adequately provided with parks, boulevards, and other amenities for healthful urban living. RISSE'S ULTIMATE LEGACY: REWRITING THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE BRONX If the Grand Concourse had never been con- ceived and built, the Bronx would still have grown rapidly between the 1890s and the 1920s, but it would have become a very different borough. The flagship project of the 1890s in many senses was the con- struction of the New Municipal Building, inaugurated in 1897 and renamed Borough Hall on January 1st 1898. This building was located just northwest of Crotona Park, at the intersection of Third and East Tremont BIRDSEYE OF GRAND SPEEDWAY avenues. The location was serviced by the Third Avenue El, the borough's first mass CONCOURSE, 1892 transit link, and it was just four short blocks from the Tremont station on the Harlem Rail Ink on paper Line. It was close to the center of gravity of the Bronx around 1900, a borough centered The Bronx County Historical Society Collections on the densely populated axis from Mott Haven to Fordham. The Concourse project captured the imagination of the Bronx business elite, early- twentieth-century real estate developers, and hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers seek- ing more affordable, comfortable and spacious apartments. The new apartment buildings along the Concourse axis offered spacious accommodations along a Grand Boulevard with abundant fresh air They seemed—and were—so much better than the crowded tenements of the Lower East Side, or those of Mott Haven, Melrose, and Bathgate, and they clearly represented upward social mobility. The result was a south-westward shift of major Bronx borough institutions toward the Concourse axis, culminating in the inauguration of the mas- sive Bronx County Building on the Concourse in 1934, a building that for much of its life has served as a de facto Borough Hall. The old Borough Hall on Third Avenue was finally demolished in 1968 after suffering severe damage in a major fire, and the Concourse is now the unquestioned focus of the civic, governmental, and legal institutions of the borough. Partly by coincidence, partly by design, most of the larger and more prestigious educational institutions in the borough have also been located within eight short blocks 68 Jntarsactions The Grand Concourse at 100  of the Concourse axis. The Rose Hill Campus of St. John's College had been established in 1841, and the college was renamed Fordham University in 1 9 0 7 . The University Heights campus of New York University was initiated in 1891 and transferred to Bronx Community College in 1974. The new Hunter College Uptown campus was initiated be- side the Jerome Park Reservoir in 1929 and transferred to the new Herbert H. Lehman College in 1968. The Bronx High School of Science was established in 1938 at 184th Street and Creston Avenue and subsequently moved in 1958 to its current location just north of Lehman College. Finally, in 1968, the new Hostos Community College was established on the southern extension of the Concourse. A similar mix of coincidence and design led to the inauguration of two major institutions in 1923, the Concourse Plaza Hotel beside the Concourse and Yankee Stadium three blocks to the west. The tremendous success of the Yankees in the 1920s and 1930s brought prestige and hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Bronx, and the Concourse Plaza Hotel hosted many of the premier social events and most distinguished visitors. The intersection of the Concourse with East 161st Street became a key focal point for the borough, a status that was greatly enhanced by the southward extension of the Concourse to 138th Street, completed in 1927, and by the construction of the monumental Bronx County Building. The building of the Concourse brought prestige to the Bronx and greatly enhanced civic pride. It strengthened links with Manhattan and created a new axis of development on the southwest side of the borough. The attractions of the Concourse for real estate developers and upwardly mobile New Yorkers accelerated the Bronx's development in the 1920s and 1930s. Despite having weathered the urban crises of the late 1960s and 1970s, the Concourse continues to be distinctive, attractive, and a focal axis for cultural and civic activities. Louis Risse's visionary project has not turned out as he imagined back in the nine- teenth century, but it has grandeur, it serves as a focal point for people to come together, and it has enormous potential to be further developed as a great linear public space. In the second century after its completion, the Grand Concourse could become a true Boulevard and Concourse all over again, with more greenery, street furniture, and space for pedestrians, and with designated lanes for bicycling, jogging, and inline skating. On weekends it might be closed to motor vehicles and reserved for parades, family bike excursions, marathons, and similar special events. It is a space to be filled with human activity—a meeting and gathering place for the borough's ever-changing demographic and cultural diversity. In the long run, Risse's greatest legacy may simply be the word Concourse—so much more sociable, pluralistic, and unusual than such commonplace names for wide thoroughfares as Avenue and Boulevard. Ray Bromley Sold Vision: Louis Risso Grand Plan