West Point, New York

“ Our West Point friends accompanied us to the steam-boat, and here we took an affectionate farewell. A Captain Randolph, of Virginia, with whom I had become acquainted at West Point, with his wife, went also to New York, so that I was agreeably entertained on board; the boat was so filled with people, we scarcely found room at the dinner-table. The shores continue to be handsome. We passed several handsome places and country-seats, which denoted that we were on the road to a large and flourishing city. ”

“ N the midst of wild mountain scenery, picturesque but not magnificent when compared with the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Adirondack and Catskill range in New York, or the Alleghanies in Western Pennsylvania and Virginia, is a bold promontory called West Point, rising more than one hundred and fifty feet above the waters of the Hudson, its top a perfectly level and fertile plateau, and every rood hallowed by associations of the deepest interest. ”

“ Of course money wouldn’t make any difference to me at West Point. That’s one place where money doesn’t count. But if we had a few thousands mother could be nearer me, say in New York, and she could run up to see me once in a while. It’s going to be a long drill—two years at a stretch. But I guess I can stand it all right.”
Tom was about to proceed to the boathouse to hire a craft, when he was aware of a figure coming around a bend in the path that led to the river. A moment later he saw that it was Captain Hawkesbury. ”

“ That’s more, too, than anybody else that the Chief has had on their trail has learned. Something tells me that we are getting warm right now. Obviously the place they come to must be nearer West Point than it is New York. They would hardly take too roundabout a course, even for the sake of hiding their tracks. ”

“ The academy occupies a commanding position on a plateau 150 ft. above the river. As we approach, the power house is in the foreground, with the riding school, a massive building just beyond, while the square tower of the Administration Building dominates the scene on the level of the parade ground above. West Point was first occupied as a military post during the Revolutionary War. ”

“ Some time later Washington recommended West Point to Congress as a site for a military school, but it was not until 1802 that the academy was established. There are many notable memorials of early days and distinguished soldiers here.
By far the greater number of America's distinguished generals and soldiers since the War of Independence have been graduates of [31] West Point. These include U. S. Grant, Philip Henry Sheridan, William Sherman, George P. McClellan, Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson (Confederate) , Robert E. Lee (Confederate) and Richard Henry Anderson (Confederate) . ”

“ So far the boy’s attitude is normal. Childish antagonism to arbitrary authority is natural. In any large town it extends to the police. All over New York games are played with one eye on the corner and often with a small scout or two on the watch for the “cop.” 13 But at this point two facts differentiate the Middle West Side from the rest of the city, and make its situation peculiar. ”

“ No traditions even of early settlers are extant, and the probabilities are that, beyond a settlement made to secure a site or grant, West Point, being in a region of stratified rocks, heavily covered with drift deposits, and without a suitable soil for cultivation, remained a mere woodland tract, possessing no higher value than attaches to similar adjoining points in the Highlands which have remained unsettled and uncultivated to this day. ”

“ Taylor, though Tom thought each one was forty-eight hours long. He planned to go to New York by train from Chester, and as he would arrive in the metropolis in the evening, he would stay at a hotel there, and go on to Highland Falls the next morning. Highland Falls is a village a mile below West Point, and there most of the prospective candidates stay before reporting for their examinations. There are plenty of hotel accommodations there. ”

“ IN THE DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION Despite the successful attempts of the architect to give to the magnificent new buildings at West Point a mediæval character, there is nothing about them to suggest a feeling of oldness, a feeling that they are linked with the history of the place. ”

“ During the Revolutionary War, West Point was fortified to control the river, and a heavy chain was stretched across the river to Constitution Island to prevent British warships from ascending the river. ”

“ The Upper West Side is composed entirely of people born in New York who want to be in society, whatever that is, and can't afford to live on Fifth Avenue. You know everybody and went to school with everybody and played in the Park with everybody, and mostly your papa is in wholesale trade and haughty about people in retail. ”

“ It forever connects him with hundreds of other men in all parts of our country and identifies him with an institution whose very name, West Point, no matter where seen or heard, thrills him with pleasure. ”

“ THE REALIZATION OF AN ARCHITECT’S DREAM When the springtime rolls around and the Hudson River is at its best, the annual influx of visitors begins to arrive at West Point. Trains and boats disgorge official visitors, tourists, boy scouts, delegations of various brotherhoods and sisterhoods, and picknickers galore. Little groups of them appear in all corners of the Post, in the area of Barracks, on the Plain, in the Public Buildings, and along the famous Flirtation Walk. Their chief interest, of course, is to catch a glimpse of the cadets, either en masse or individually. ”

“ The survey that I have given in this chapter will show that West Point is indeed fortunate in many ways. Few places have been so endowed by Nature with such wonderful beauty and picturesqueness, and, in addition, a generous Congress has adorned the place with magnificent buildings equipped with the finest that money can buy for the training of the future United States officers. ”

“ The "Drives" at West Point and its vicinity, although limited in extent by the rugged character of the region, are possessed of infinite variety and beauty, from the constantly changing aspect of river, mountain, and valley. Besides the routes on the Post itself, the road South, along the riverbank to Fort Montgomery, about four miles distant, from its smoothness, easy grades, and the numerous attractive residences by the wayside, affords many present and pleasing after reminiscences of a sojourn at this delightful retreat. ”

“ A word must be said, too, as to the selection of this particular West Side district of New York City. These 80 blocks which border upon the Hudson River, between Thirty-fourth and Fifty-fourth Streets, contrast sharply with almost all other tenement neighborhoods of the city. They have as nearly homogeneous and stable a population as can be found in any part of New York. The original stock was Irish and German. In each generation the bolder spirits moved away to more prosperous parts of the city. ”

“ I can't honestly say I chose the West Side. When I came to New York in 1970, I lived where I could, which happened to be the West Side. But now that I'm here, I like it. I was brought up in New York and went to Columbia ... . I've always identified myself with Manhattan. My publishers — almost all of them are in Manhattan. Taxis are available at any time. I West Side, as far as I'm concerned, has more good restaurants within walked distance than any other place on earth, though I have not been to Paris. I have learned to tolerate the traffic and the pollution and the litter. ”

“ Chauncey was picking his way delicately along, fearful of spoiling a beautiful new shine he had just had put on. And Indian was in mortal terror lest some of the ghosts, bears, tramps or snakes which the yearlings had assured him filled the woods, should spring out upon his fat, perspiring little self.
The government property at West Point extends for some four miles up the Hudson, and quite a distance into [18] the wild mountains to the rear. The government property is equivalent to “cadet limits,” and so the woods are freely roamed by the venturesome lads on holiday afternoons. ”

“ He will then feel a love for New York equal to the Chicagoan’s love for his city, and when he sees across the New Jersey flats the smoke and the tall buildings and the twin spires of the cathedral, he will wish to shout, as the cowboys do when they “come into town,” at being back again in the only place where one can both hear the Tough Girl of the East Side ask for her shoes, and the horn of the Country Club’s coach tooting above the roar of the Avenue.
The West is a very wonderful, large, unfinished, and out-of-doors portion of our country, and a most delightful place [243] to visit. ”

“ To the visitor at West Point, the objective spot of the stirring scenes described, each wooded height and rocky bluff recalls the times when our fathers, regardless of personal hardship, suffering and death, labored to secure the priceless boon of freedom. ”

“ The past is an illusion, as is the future."
Betsy has been an off-and-on Westside resident ever since she first came to New York in 1951. When doing Same Time, Next Year she is subletting a friend's apartment on Riverside Drive. Her 16-year-old daughter frequently comes down from Connecticut to spend time with her on the West Side.
"I've lived on the East Side but my preference is the West Side. Let's face it, Broadway's on the West Side. Where Broadway is is where my heart is." Flowers by Edith (69th and B'way) is one of Betsy's best-loved Westside establishments. ”

“ The only reason for riding through this country is a historic one, for the ground is covered with objects of interest connected with the Revolutionary war, and of course West Point itself is one of the sights of the Hudson, both from the fact of its being the seat of the military academy, and because of the scenery thereabouts. ”

“ West returned to his home in Springfield, in 1754, to discuss the question of his future vocation. He had an inclination for military life, and volunteered as a recruit in the old French war; but military attractions vanished (p. 257) among the hardships involved, and in 1756, when eighteen years old, he established himself in Philadelphia as a portrait-painter, his price being "five guineas a head." Two years later he went to New York, where he passed eleven months, and was liberally employed by the merchants and others. ”

“ Every American boy takes a keen interest in the affairs of West Point. No more capable writer on this popular subject could be found than Lieut. Garrison, who vividly describes the life, adventures and unique incidents that have occurred in that great institution—in these famous West Point stories. ”

“ Not until one wanders among the ruins of old Fort Putnam, explores the crumbling works of the chain of Redoubts on the surrounding hills, or rambles over the débris of Fort Constitution on Constitution Island, does he feel the flavor of age, the romance of West Point of the past. It is only then that the imagination races back over the years to the days of the Revolution where it pauses to rebuild the stirring events that filled the daily lives of our ancestors in their desperate struggle for our independence. ”

“ The American public has long needed a work on West-Point, and we have here a very clever volume, by one who has retained with great accuracy in his memory its predominant characteristics, and repeated them in a very readable form. ”

“ Why would a sophisticated Timesman choose the West Side over the East? "There are many more wonderful buildings on the West Side," says Goldberger. Unfortunately not many of the buildings on the West Side have been kept up as well as the East Side. ... In terms of apartment house architecture, Central Park West is probably the best street in New York. It has all the grandeur and beauty and monumentality of Fifth Avenue and it also has the relaxed atmosphere."
There's not one West Side," he continues. "There's at least 10. Around here is one neighborhood. ”

“ West Point itself saw no fighting, the great event of its early history being Benedict Arnold's treason. Across the river from the Point, and under the shadow of Sugar Loaf Mountain, is Beverly Cove, with a little wharf, where then stood Beverly House, previously the home of a prominent loyalist, Colonel Beverly Robinson of Virginia. Dr. Dwight, afterwards President of Yale College, was Chaplain of a Connecticut regiment at West Point in 1778, and he then climbed the Sugar Loaf, describing its view over the Highlands as "majestic, solemn, wild and melancholy." ”

“ Though also scantily educated, he served some years as magistrate of his town with much satisfaction, being a man of strong common sense and good judgment. He seems also to have been a pioneer pedestrian, the original Weston, apparently; for it is recorded that on a certain occasion, missing his sloop at Newburgh, which was already out of sight above the Danskammer Point, running with a fair wind, on the Hudson, on its way to Albany, young Elder started off at a rattling pace, with his musket and knapsack, to join his military company at the Capital in time or be denounced as a traitor. ”

“ The park is different every time of the year. Now it's all covered with snow. Pretty soon the buds will be all over the trees." She smiles contentedly. "I really think that if I had to leave the West Side I'd leave New York. Because to me, this is New York." ”