MY VIDEO; Visit to Grant's Tomb, Riverside Park

Oh, I DID make it up to Grant's Tomb ( after finishing the video about the Firemen's Monument)

Again it was a little confusing

WHAT IS SO FASCINATING TO ME IS THAT THIS IS A GREAT NYC LANDMARK SO FEW NEW YORKER'S HAVE EVER VISITED!--

just seems to get busloads of tourists

And students from the International House nearby

Friend of mine, Eric T., spent one summer living a few blocks from the memorial

" I never thought of visiting it," he wrote me recently, " because I had read that Grant was a brutal general and then a lousy President ( more corruption around while he was in office than at any time in American History up to that point)"

It IS a little remote but then is close by Columbia University and the area is now, uh, gentrified and perfectly safe during daytime hours (there was an era when all Bway up from 96th to Columbia was pretty awful to say the least, and Riverside and especially Morninside Parks were almost suicidal to enter up there)

Anyway--

Friday, January 30, 2015

MY VIDEO: WHO Is Buried in Grants Tomb? Trick Question? No, Important Part of History!

http://youtu.be/7OsAhtXiZj0

Been meaning to get up to Grant's Tomb for a long time...

The great Union General and then President Grant chose New York City's Upper Riverside Park as his burial place for a couple of reasons-- he and his wife had left Galena, Illinois, and come to NYC to be taken care of by rich friends...

They said they wanted to bury him at West Point, but they wouldn't let his wife be buried there for some reason and he insisted they be buried in the same place...not Central Park, either..

It is only a quick subway/el ride from where I live,...when I got up there I spoke to many foreign students who live in the area and also tourists from Russia who had me take their picture..

I can't understand why crtics of the day thought it was an ugly tomb...it is a classical one, based like many on the Tomb of Halicarnassus...

There is also a Visitors' Center in Riverside park, where you can see Grant's Civil War Uniform and other Memorabilia, as well as buying the usual T Shirts and other such articles..

It is a very dignified and grand place, and the interior marble architecture is beautiful...it is the kind of place to go if you have time for it and want some place beautiful , historic and peaceful with great views out over the Hudson..

Well, here is the video:

http://youtu.be/7OsAhtXiZj0