| Much of the parkway landscape was carefully calculated to appeal to passing motorists. Merkel’s greatest challenge was devising a way to accommodate large volumes of traffic while displaying the Bronx River valley’s scenery to best advantage. The design of the roadway and surrounding landscape was carefully coordinated to balance the provision of traditional park amenities with the desire to facilitate safe and efficient motoring. The roadway offered safe and convenient access while presenting motorists with a variety of pleasing views ranging from broad vistas over grassy meadows to intimate woodland scenery, spacious clearings with artfully placed specimen trees, picturesque water features, and glimpses of the tumbling stream. A crucial component of Merkel’s naturalistic design was the use of plants to conceal manmade objects from view or integrate them harmoniously with the parkway landscape.(153) Merkel’s landscaping design and reforestation efforts emphasized the use of native trees and plants in order to restore the flora of the Bronx River valley. In White Plains, for instance, the steep rocky bluff was planted with red cedars, dogwood, and black haw. While indigenous plants were preferred, the BPC was not dogmatic about its native plant policy. Japanese barberry was used nearby to screen the drive from the path because Merkel believed it would work better than indigenous alternatives. Non-native bushes and trees were also used to provide screening in the narrow strip between the parkway and railroad. Merkel would have preferred to use a native plant such as the hemlock, but there was insufficient space for these trees. He justified the exceptions to the native-flora policy by noting that exotics were sometimes better-suited to the commission’s goals. He noted that planting non-native trees along the parkway border was permissible because they did not threaten the integrity of the overall landscaping plan. In addition to restoring native species, Merkel incorporated areas of existing natural beauty such as Garth Woods and Butler Woods. These areas were left in their natural state, though the trees were often improved by the BPC’s foresters. The BPC went to great lengths to preserve existing trees along the parkway path, sometimes shifting the alignment slightly to spare particularly attractive specimens. In several sections where a four-lane roadway would have resulted in the destruction of too many magnificent trees, Merkel divided the roadway into two one-way drives and manipulated the alignments to preserve as many trees as possible. The divide roadway segments in Garth Woods were the most prominent illustration of this practice.(154) Merkel manipulated the course of the Bronx River to help achieve the desired naturalistic effect. By the time the BPC acquired the river, it had already been diverted from its original course in numerous places. Some diversions resulted from natural processes such as the silting in of old channels and the cutting of new ones during periods of high water. Merkel observed that many of these diversions followed natural depressions in the topography and that attractive vegetation had already grown up along the riverbanks. He considered these areas to be attractive and worth preserving as park features. On the other hand, the Bronx River had been subjected to many manmade diversions, especially in areas where it ran close to the railroad. The railroad builders had straightened and narrowed the river in their efforts to create a smooth and relatively straight track bed, channeling the stream into a steep-sided ditch so that in many places it looked like an artificial canal. Merkel complained that these parts of the river were "too obviously man-made" and insisted that they be reconfigured to conform to the desired naturalistic aesthetic. Artful curves were inserted in the straight sections and the riverbanks were regraded to emulate the softened contours of a natural stream. Whenever possible, the river was channeled away from the tracks and the railroad hidden by planting. These extensive excavations enabled the BPC to create a seemingly natural stream course that wound picturesquely through fields and forest and widened out in selective locations to form attractive pools, ponds, and lakes. These water features provided varied recreational opportunities and were essential to Merkel’s goal of showcasing the river as the parkway’s premier design element. |
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| (153)Bronx
Parkway Commission, Report, 1916, 81; Report, 1918,
52-53, 56. |
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