Vietnam Veterans Plaza - New York City, NY
Posted by: Metro2
N 40° 42.148 W 074° 00.588
18T E 583651 N 4506200
This Plaza was once a slip....which was later landfilled.
Waymark Code: WMK669
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 02/19/2014
Views: 8
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Vietnam Veterans Plaza, also known as the New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial, is a memorial plaza in Battery Park City, New York City It lies on a trapezoidal parcel of land which was formerly the Coenties Slip from the 17th century, used by Dutch sailors between journeys. The slip was filled in 1835, and it then became Jeanette Park in 1884, dedicated to the ill-fated The Jeanette ship of the Arctic expedition. Horticulturist Samuel Parsons Jr was responsible for laying out the garden in 1886.
By the mid 20th century Robert Moses had rebuilt the park with "horseshoe pitches and tennis, paddleball, handball, and shuffleboard courts all arranged around a tear-shaped asphalt plaza with a flagpole".[5] Paul Friedberg was commissioned to redesign the land in 1971, in which he added the amphitheater fountain. In 1982 plans unveiled to redevelop the land into a memorial, and the architects Peter Wormser and William Fellows, and the writer Joseph Ferrandino won a competition to design it. It was then dedicated in 1985 by then mayor Edward I. Koch to honor the 1741 citizens of the city who died during the Vietnam War and the 250,000 men and women who served between 1964 and 1975. Rudy Giuliani rededicated the plaza on November 9, 2001 following 9/11 as it underwent a $7 million restoration. A new ceremonial entrance was added providing access from Water to South Street and a black granite fountain placed at the centre. The "Walk of Honor" contains 12 polished granite pylons with the names of all 1741 people who died."