THE blue and white 60-foot by 60-foot Columbia University “C” on the Marble Hill side of the Harlem River has been painted and repainted on the gneiss rock facing the Harlem River since 1952. After its original concept by Robert Prendergast, a medical student of Columbia University and coxswain on the heavyweight rowing crew team, Prendergast approached the New York Central Railroad for permission (which was given) to have this sign painted on the 100-foot-high wall of Fordham Gneiss, which was completed in the fall of 1952 by the rowers of the crew team, which continues to maintain it.
Columbia swim teams have raced from the Manhattan to the Bronx sides at the C across the river for decades. Wien Stadium, used by Columbia for football, soccer and other sports, is nearby on Broadway. The sign continues to be maintained by Columbia’s crew teams.
For decades, Marble Hill kids have climbed the Columbia rock and jumped into the waters below. Circle Line patrons would sometimes see a brave diver jump from a 100-foot height into the Harlem River.
I happen to have a cloth “C” in the same shade of blue. I am a lettered athlete: I was on the bowling team for Cathedral Prep High School, which usually finished dead last in its division.
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10/12/22
14 comments
The stadium on Broadway is for the Columbia University Soccer (football in most places elsewhere) games. Wien (American football) Stadium is further west on 218th Street, between Seaman Avenue and Indian Road.
I have spent many hours in the spot your photo depicts (Muscota Marsh) and even more in the areas of Inwood Hill Park nearer to the Big C and have watched the ritual jumping (never diving) from the rock. Mostly, the jumpers choose lower elevations, since there are several spots that can be jumped from on the way up to the highest perch. It is a long time since I have seen anyone jumping from atop the C. Even watching someone plunging from halfway up is pretty entertaining to watch.
You commuted from Bay Ridge all the way out to Queens?Great God!
You must have gotten up in the wee hours just to get to school on time.
KW is old enough to have gone to the Brooklyn campus, which was at Washington and Atlantic in the Clinton Hill neightborhood, which location shut down in the 1980’s. Still a subway ride from Bay Ridge to Pacific St (now the Barclays stop on the D/N/R (“Do not resuscitate?”) lines and a short bus ride, but with a school transit pass, it wasn’t two fares.
As my Queens College geology professor used to say, “have a gneiss day!”
Dr. Ludman……?? I am an alumnus, class of 1982.
I don’t recall his name. I was there 84 – 88.
Was that the place in that movie The Basketball Diaries where the boys
moon the Circle Line passengers as they go by?
Sometimes it makes me wonder how it got there in the first place.
WARNING: VERY CRUDE LANGUAGE BELOW
In the book Basketball Diaries, the jumpers have to time their jumps to avoid hitting rafts of sewage. One raft has condoms in it, and Jim Carroll says something like “Damn, look at the size of those things. The people in this sewer district must have some really big dicks.” You don’t read dialog like that every day.
While I was at Columbia Law School, a friend found and gave me a varsity blue “C” patch. He announced it was for my expertise in Poetry.
I house-sat for a friend in that big blue-brick building above the “C” about 20 years ago. Gorgeous views, and a very quiet neighborhood. Not many spots in the Bronx I would move to, but that building is one I would’ve chosen (20 years ago at least; now I love NYC from California via Kevin’s posts).
Leaving NY for California is like jumping out of the frying pan & into the fire. Between those two failing states there are many better alternatives. I will concede, however, that if NY voters actually turn out & vote, & they elect Zeldin/Esposito/Henry redemption & improvement are possible for NY. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
My little slice of CA is very clean and quiet, the neighbors are really nice, and I have a good paying job with a very short commute. That’s good enough for me.
That’s nice. AZ is cleaner & quieter & the nicest neighbors are CA refugees who wanted lower taxes, less crime, & better education for their children (AZ has a $7K education voucher program; the voucher is in the name of the recipient so that it’s redeemable at church-sponsored schools which avoids the “separation of church & state argument). “California dreaming” is now just a song title, not a reality.