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Central Park: The Grand Vision

ORNAMENTAL BRIDGES AND ARCHWAYS
Greyshot Arch
Pine Bank Arch
Dalehead Arch
Riftstone Arch
Eaglevale Bridge
Balcony Bridge
Bank Rock Bridge
Ramble Arch
Winterdale Arch
Dipway Arch
Driprock Arch
Playmates Arch
Gapstow Bridge
Inscope Arch
Green Gap Arch
Denesmouth Arch
Willowdell Arch
The Terrace Bridge
Bow Bridge
Trefoil Arch
Glade Arch
Greywacke Arch
Southeast Reservoir Bridge
Reservoir Bridge Southwest
Claremont Arch
Gothic Bridge
Springbanks Arch
Glen Span
Huddlestone Arch
Mountcliff Arch

SMALL RUSTIC BRIDGES

LOST BRIDGES
Spur Rock Arch Marble Arch Outset Arch

GLOSSARY

Bridges of Central Park
Glossary

Abutment. A masonry mass that takes the downward thrust of an arch or a vault.
Ashlar. A squared and finished building stone.
Balcony. A platform enclosed by a low wall and which extends from the main wall of a building or a bridge.
Balustrade. A railing formed by balusters, that is, upright supports in a variety of turned shapes, customarily swelling towards the base.
Belt Course. A horizontal course or row of masonry united in one line and extending across a wall.
Blind Arcade. An arcade which is made up of two or more arches on imposts or piers, where the customarily open spaces are filled with a wall.
Boss. A projecting mass of stone usually carved.
Bunker. An enclosed space for storage or shelter.
Bush-hammered. Stone with the pitted surface created by a bush hammer, a hammer with one face covered with diamond points, used to pit the surface of stone.
Buttress. An abutment or support to strengthen a wall, usually on the exterior.
Cambered I-beam. A metal beam with a cross section shaped like the letter I given a convex curve.
Cavalcade. A procession or a pageant.
Cavaliers. Horseback riders.
Cinquefoil. Five foils or lobes formed by 5 triangular projections or cusps, set in a circle.
Coffer. A sunken panel in a ceiling.
Coping. A protective top to a wall or a parapet.
Corbelled out. Projecting from a wall of masonry (see Balcony Bridge).
Cornice. The projecting horizontal upper part of a structure.
Coursing. The way in which courses, or layers of masonry, are placed on top of each other.
Crocket. Decoration, usually in the form of bunched and curved foliage on the sloping edge of a gable, pinnacle or spire.
Cyclopean rock. A huge rock taking its name from the Cyclops, a race of mythical giants with one eye in the middle of the forehead.
Dene. A bare sandy tract or low hill by the sea. In Central Park, adopted as the name for an open space of ground.
Efflorescence. A leaching caused by moisture that leaves deposits of salts on the surface of masonry.
Elevation. The height of a structure.
Elliptical arch. An arch having the shape of half an ellipse.
Embankment. A raised structure to hold back water.
Erosion. The wearing away of land or deterioration of masonry.
Foliated ornament. Ornament consisting of leafage.
Gneiss. A laminated metamorphic rock, the main bedrock of the Bronx.
Gonfalon. The flag of a state or one that hangs from a crossbar.
Gothic Revival. The architectural style of the Middle Ages which had a revival in this country in the Romantic Era, 1825-1860.
Greywacke. A fine-grained conglomerate stone, usually dark grey, quarried on the west side of the Hudson River.
Grotto. A cave, given that name when found in an English or Picturesque landscape.
Incisive. Cutting into stone as a form of decoration.
Ironmonger. A dealer in iron hardware.
Ironwork. Decorative work in iron.
Lobe. A rounded form alternating with cusps or triangular projections in a circle of tracery.
Loch. Scottish for lake.
Megalithic. Made of huge stones.
Neo-Classic. A revival of Classical architecture from about 1750 to 1850.
Obelisk. A four-sided tapering ornament or monument customarily of stone, as Cleopatra's Needle in Central Park.
Ogival. An arch that is pointed at the center.
Parapet. A low wall on the edge of a roof, balcony, or bridge.
Pier. A vertical mass of masonry used for support lacking the shape and detail of a column.
Portal. An imposing door.
Puddle wrought-iron. A form of pure iron produced by melting pig iron in a furnace, then taken out as a white hot ball with chipping slag and hammered to remove impurities. In genuine puddle wrought-iron, the process is repeated five times to remove all impurities. Not used since 1958.
Quatrefoil. A pattern of four lobes and four cusps set in a circle (see cinquefoil).
Random ashlar. Ashlar, which is squared, finished building stone, when not laid in a straight line or continuous joints.
Revetment. A covering or facing of stone work, usually over a brick or concrete wall, to make it more attractive.
Rockface. Stone given a presumably natural surface.
Romantic Era. In the United States the era in our literature and in our art that identifies the generation before the Civil War.
Rondel. A circular window or opening.
Rusticated voussoir. A wedge-shaped block forming part of an arch and given a channeled surface.
Saracenic arch. A horseshoe arch, only pointed at the top.
Schist. A metamorphic rock in foliated layers, the main bedrock of Manhattan.
Segmental arch. An arch formed from part of a half circle.
Segmental span. The same as a segmental arch.
Spandrel. The triangular space bounded by the curve of an arch, where the vertical line on the side meets the horizontal line at the top of the arch.
Spring block. The block or support on which one end of an arch rests.
Spring line. The horizontal line from which an arch begins to curve.
Terminal scroll. An ornamental spiral at the top of a column, also a volute as found in an Ionic capital.
Tooled. A block of stone whose surface has been given fine shallow vertical grooves.
Trestle. A frame consisting of a horizontal member resting on uprights set at an angle and spreading at the bottom.
Tuscan arch. An arch whose voussoirs, or wedge-shaped blocks, form a pointed or ogival pattern at the top and a round one at the bottom.
Unitized girders. Girders so joined that they form a unit.
Vault, barrel. A masonry ceiling, usually semi-cylindrical in shape, which is like an extended arch.
Vault, brick. An arched structure made of brick.
Vermiculated. A surface of cut stone given indentations resembling worm tracks.
Volute. A spiral scroll.
Voussoir. A wedge-shaped block found in an arch.
Wing wall. Masonry extensions, often serving to support, on a structure.



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