Bronx River Parkway Reservation

Running about ten miles through Westchester County, the Bronx River Parkway Reservation combines a limited-access parkway, a cleaned and re-routed river, and a designed landscape of forests, meadows, lakes and footpaths. It was planned and built between 1906 and 1925, with Hermann Merkel directing the landscape design and Jay Downer, Leslie Holleran and Arthur Hayden handling engineering. Bridges of reinforced concrete faced in native granite were meant to blend into the scenery, and many were designed by architects such as Charles W. Stoughton and the firm of Delano & Aldrich. Two stone service stations in Crestwood were made to resemble small houses. The parkway was split into separate roadways in places to preserve trees, an idea later seen in highway medians. The Westchester County Center, an Art Deco auditorium completed around 1930, sits beside the parkway. The nominated section was kept intact, while the altered southern third was left out.