I have yet to do a definitive walk on Riverside Drive, though in 2012 a Forgotten NY tour marched from 72nd north to 125th, a trip that took us a good five hours. It’s a fascinating road as it twists and tuns unlike most Manhattan avenues, and divided into two in sections with one side up a hill from the other. It’s also bridged over several cross streets such as West 96th, West 129th through 135th and West 158th. The viaduct from West 129th to 135th (seen on this FNY page) is the lengthiest and most photographed of all of them, but I have begun to notice the others, such as this one at West 96th. It enables traffic to get to the Henry Hudson Parkway directly without having to cross Riverside Drive.
Interestingly West 96th Street is bridged under Riverside Drive due to a very steep grade. Alongside the overpass on Riverside Drive where 96th Street would be is an interesting apartment building from. adesign point of view: Cliff Dwellers Apartments, a.k.a. The Cliff Dwelling.
Two terra cotta swastika-shaped symbols can be found on the upper corners at 243 Riverside at West 96th Street, which was built about 1914. The swastika, formerly a symbol of good fortune and prosperity, was co-opted and forever corrupted by the National Socialist Party of Germany beginning in the 1920s. The building, according to the AIA Guide to Architecture, is called the Cliff Dwellers Apartments, and other friezes on the building, designed by Herman Lee Meader, depict mountain lions, buffalo skulls and rattlesnakes to symbolize Arizona cliff dwelling Native Americans: this building overlooks hilly Riverside Park across the street.
I’ve since found numerous swastikas on buildings around town, but rest assured, none were designed by Nazi sympathizers.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop. As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site.
8/1/25
5 comments
That fire escape bought back some memories, as in
how many of you have had a cookout out on the fire
escape only to have the neighborhood asshole call the
Fire Dept. on you? Must be in the thousands.
Fire escapes to me mean raccoons. Here in Jersey Citu we have a thriving raccoon population and they really like fire escapes. I like raccoons and admire that widlife that big can exist and even thrive in a tough urban environment. But I still don’t like when they stake out territory on the fire escape just outside my kitchen window. Spraying them with a solution of peppermint oil works. But you have to be vigilant and do it all the time because they will come back.
Fun fact: there’s a four-building complex in San Diego that forms a perfect swastika when seen from above.
Even funner fact: it’s on the military base where Navy SEALs are trained.
The beautiful so-large-it-looks-like-a-cathedral Presbyterian curch on Route 9 in Scarborough NY has left-turning, Indian swastikas in its stained glass windows. It’s funny that more often than not when graffiti submorons try to paint a Nazi swastika they inadvertently choose the left-turning one. Even then, though, the authorities immediately paint it over or make it disappear, because they know the idiot was trying to paint a Hitler one. The one time I saw a Hitler one that was not painted over was on SIRT. I happened to look out the window south of Clifton and by luck saw through all the weeds and scrub trees a small spraypainted one on an old cinder block wall. Probably the authorities didn’t know it was there.
Visit AZ to see the real cliff dwellings:
https://www.roadsanddestinations.com/the-6-best-ancient-stand-alone-and-cliff-dwellings-in-arizona/