Manhattan monument to soldiers and sailors put in the narrow Riverside Park on the banks of the Hudson River, almost at the corner of Riverside Drive and 89th Street. The place is beautiful, near the expanse of water - the memorial is impressive and worthy.

The idea to perpetuate the memory of the soldiers and sailors of New York, who fought in the Civil War on the side of the North, it was suggested five years after the war ended in 1869. However, gone fierce controversy over the location of the monument, a variety of interest groups offering all sorts of options not yet converged on Riverside Drive. The last obstacle was the position of a local woman, a widow, Elizabeth Clark, she has managed to achieve a temporary ban on the construction of "unsightly and non-artistic" monument, as it would "interfere in the flow of light and air and obstruct the view." The widow has lost the case, and in 1901 was laid the first stone of the building.

The project of the monument in white marble Beaux Arts designed by the architects brothers Charles and Arthur Stoughton. They interpreted it as a "temple of fame" and performed as a man standing on a high base round the ancient temple, surrounded by twelve Corinthian columns. Memorial, located in the center of a complex system of stairs and balustrades, markedly elevated above the surrounding terrain. The curved profile of Riverside Drive allows you to see it from afar. The initial project involved the construction of wide stairs that go down to the Hudson, the battlements on the south side and the statue of Peace "heroic dimensions." These plans, however, remained on paper.

To the south of the monument on the stone pedestals two guns Civil War. On special plates located on the terrace, engraved names of volunteer regiments of New York and the battles in which they participated. During the war in New York City were mobilized about 200 thousand soldiers, sailors and militia, about 20 thousand of them died. The Civil War was the bloodiest in the history of the United States: it claimed the lives of nearly 750 thousand people.

The height of the monument - about 29 meters. The frieze above the colonnade contains the inscription "In memory of the brave soldiers and sailors who saved the Union." Cast bronze doors are usually closed to visitors. Inside the building in the center of the mosaic floor is a bronze relief with the star, showing American arms surrounded by oak and laurel leaves.

The monument is a point to which the last Monday of May, Memorial Day, the traditional parade moves. Sam Memorial Day was established just after the Civil War and was dedicated to the first memory northern soldiers. After the First World that day began to remember the fallen in all wars. Since 1971 is an official national holiday of the United States.