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Another Inside Look At The Washington Square Arch
By
Jen Carlson
Published Mar 8, 2011
Modified Mar 8, 2011
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Mar 8, 2011
Modified Mar 8, 2011
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Washington Square Arch in 1950, and inset from the WSJ's tour
In 2009 we got a small peek inside the Washington Square Arch (thanks to Curbed, take a look back here), and now the Wall Street Journal has infiltrated the historic structure, returning with a few sweet photos from the inside.
Their writer was given a guided tour, and reports back, "I found myself inside the arch, and not just inside it, having entered through a small side door in the arch's western leg, but climbing a 102-step spiral staircase toward its summit... One of the triumphs of the renovation is that the roof no longer leaks."
So now that it's all fixed up, why can't the rest of us go up there? Well, "the stairway is quite dangerous and the roof is quite fragile. If we allowed the public up here, the roof would fail quite quickly." If the public were allowed, here's what they'd see from the top: a clear shot up 5th Avenue (looking north), the Wall Street skyscrapers (to the south), and the Freedom Tower's construction. Here's a look back at the Arch's history—it turns 116 this year!
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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