Riverside Drive (Manhattan)
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Riverside Drive is a scenic north-south thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The boulevard runs generally parallel to the Hudson River from 72nd Street to near the George Washington Bridge at 181st Street on the west side of Manhattan. At points Riverside Drive is a wide avenue; at other points it narrows to a serpentine neighborhood street. Some of the most coveted addresses in New York are located along its route.
Riverside Drive was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted as part of his concept for Riverside Park. It passes through the Manhattan neighborhoods of the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights, over Manhattanville in West Harlem by way of the Riverside Drive Viaduct and Washington Heights. Among the monuments, sights and institutions along its route are the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, the Statue of Joan of Arc, Grant's Tomb, The Riverside Church, Riverbank State Park, Trinity Church Cemetery, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and Fort Washington Park.
Most of Riverside Drive was built along an older road. Due to the hilly terrain, Riverside Drive passes over 96th Street, 125th Street and 158th Street on viaducts; at 125th Street, an old alignment is present, also named Riverside Drive. At its north end, Riverside Drive used to merge with the northbound lanes of the Henry Hudson Parkway, which were originally part of the road. However, in 2005, a retaining wall collapsed onto the roadway and on the Northbound Henry Hudson Parkway. To this day, the right lane of the Henry Hudson Parkway remains closed and Riverside Drive is closed at 181st Street. A detour takes you to Haven Avenue to Fort Washington Avenue.
The section exiting the parkway at the Dyckman Street exit and ending at Broadway is still known as Riverside Drive.
[edit] Popular culture
- The play 6 Rms Riv Vu, tells the story of a married advertising copywriter and a discontented housewife who both end up looking at the same Riverside Drive apartment. The door is locked accidentally, trapping them inside, and a connection slowly develops as they begin to share the details of their respective lives.
- In the sitcom Will & Grace, Will lives on Riverside Drive, as does Grace at times throughout the series.
- Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) of the sitcom 30 Rock lives at 160 Riverside Drive.
- It is also mentioned in the song "Tango in Harlem", by Touch and Go [1]
- In Sex and the City, Miranda refers to a past apartment, "a horrible studio sublet on Riverside Drive"
- In the movie Enchanted, Robert and Morgan Philip live at the intersection of 116th Street.
- In the song standard "Penthouse Serenade", the lyric is:
In our little penthouse we'll always contrive,
To keep love and romance forever alive,
In view of the Hudson just over the Drive,
When we're alone.
- In some novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child there is a house in Riverside Drive where Agent Pendergast's (one of the novel's characters) uncle Enoch Leng lived and where Pendergast with his ward Constance Greene live now.
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