Tackling the Bronx

Yesterday I decided I had neglected the Bronx long enough. I have traveled all over that borough and I can vouch that it has some of the ugliest sights in New York City. It is the poorest and most culturally deprived. The Grand Concourse was long ago stripped of its stained glass. Its art deco building have been defaced. And most of its once luxurious apartments have been converted into cubicles by greedy -- or desperate -- landlords, as fear-driven middle class families abandoned them for the Coop City wasteland. Another landmark, the Kingsbridge Armory has been plundered and raped. I could go on.

But the Bronx's past greatness is still evident in its majestic parks such as the Botanical garden and one of the world's grandest zoos. And, adjacent to Van Cortland Park, there is the gem, Woodlawn Cemetery, 400 acre, a final resting place to over 300,000 people, home to thousands of geese and ducks, site of hundreds of the City's oldest and most beautiful trees and the most amazing repository of human grandiosity and foolishness since 1863.

I spent a couple of hours exploring a small part of this sprawling museum of the bizarre and planning out the best way to photograph some of its remarkable monuments. I took just a few photos as a place mark for future adventures.

January 30