Fountain Bailey - building both beautiful and strange. He stands right in the heart of Brooklyn Grand Army Plaza, decorating the area on a par with the Arch of soldiers and sailors.

Named in honor of the fountain financier and philanthropist Frank Bailey and his wife Marie-Louise. At the end of 1920 they gave 125 thousand dollars for the construction of a new fountain in the midst of the Grand Army Plaza. One already there functioned, but was dismantled in 1915 for laying the metro line under the square. Architect Egerton Svortauta and sculptor Eugene Savage chosen on a competitive basis, and the work began. In 1932, the fountain was opened.

It looks very impressive, though somewhat melodramatic. It is assumed that a group of sculptures represents an allegory of abundance. In the center of the stone basin - two bronze figures. Naked man and woman are like on the bow, reminding about the movie "Titanic", and Mukhina sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Girl". The figures symbolize wisdom and luck, but if you look closely, a man and a woman like no wise nor happy. They stand back to back and look quarreled spouses. The legs have a naked boy holding a cornucopia.

Mysterious figure of Neptune looks just at the foot of the pedestal. Powerful, smug, unpleasant Neptune with a round belly and scaly legs opened his mouth in a scream. Two Triton on both sides of the ship struggled pipes in the sink.

Start of construction of the fountain coincided with the beginning of the Great Depression. Do sculptor invest some hidden meaning in your work? Does Neptune greed, boy - the hope and the man with the woman - and an attempt to resist the confusion among the adversity?

However, modern man on the Grand Army Plaza is not thinking about it. When the fountain is working, Neptune, Triton, as they should be, half immersed in water, and the top figures in the spray from the jets seem high, even romantic. No wonder Bailey Fountain is very popular among honeymoon - about it often hosts wedding photo shoot.