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Grand Army Plaza in ; Butler Place; Saint John’s Place (twice); Lincoln Place; Eastern Parkway ; Prospect Park West; Union Street; and Berkeley Place. As completed, the only streets that penetrate to the inner ring are Flatbush Avenue, Vanderbilt Avenue, Prospect Park West, Eastern Parkway, and Union Street. THE ARCH Prospect Park Plaza (as it was originally known) was conceived by its designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux , simply as a grand entrance to the Park. It was meant as a gateway, to separate the noisy city from the calm nature of the Park. Olmsted and Vaux's design included only a single-spout fountain surrounded by Berms (earth embankments) covered in heavy plantings. They still shield the local apartment buildings and the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library from the noisy traffic circle that has developed. On 1889-08-06 , A blind jury of two experts, appointed by the Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission, selected the design of John H. Duncan from a field of thirty six entries that had been submitted the previous year. Jurors William R. Ware and Charles B. Atwood had been appointed earlier in the year by the three person Commission, comprised of Brooklyn Mayor Alfred C. Chapin, Aldermanic President McCarty, and Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Committee Chairman James D. Bell Duncan, who would go on to design Grants Tomb in the following decade, proposed a free-standing memorial arch of a classical style similar to the Arc De Triomphe in Paris. After two and a half months of site preparation, William Tecumseh Sherman laid the cornerstone of the arch on 1889-10-30 . After almost three years of construction, President Grover Cleveland presided over the unveiling on 1892-10-21 White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot; '' AIA Guide to New York City'', 4th Edition; New York Chapter, American Institute of Architects; Crown Publishers/Random House. 2000. ISBN 0-8129-31069-8; ISBN0-8129-3107-6. P.723—730.. STATUARY AND FOUNTAIN The Arch gained its monumental statues nine years later. They were first suggested by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead And White as part of a plan to formalize the plaza in the spirit of the City Beautiful Movement . Park Commissioner Frank Squire liked the proposal and in 1894 engaged Frederick MacMonnies to design three sculptural groupings for the Arch, the ''Quadriga'', ''The Spirit of the Army'', and ''The Spirit of the Navy''. The '' Quadriga '' resides at the top and depicts the lady Columbia , an allegorical representation of the United States, riding in a chariot drawn by two horses. Two winged Victory figures, each leading a horse, trumpets Columbia's arrival. The lower pedestals facing the park hold the ''Spirit of the Army'' group and the ''Spirit of the Navy'' group. Installation of the groups began four years later, starting with the ''Quadriga'' on December 4 , 1898 , and finishing with the Navy group on April 13 , 1901 . The work took nearly seven years to complete, about twice as long as the construction of the arch itself. Just north of the Arch, and away from Prospect Park, stands Bailey Fountain, the fourth fountain to occupy the site. The original fountain, featuring a lone jet of water, was replaced in 1873 by Calvert Vaux 's Plaza Fountain which had gas-lit colored horizontal and vertical water jets. The Electric Fountain, designed by electrical engineer F.W. Darlington in 1897, featured 19 automatic focusing electric lights with a dancing display of water jets controlled by a conductor. The Electric Fountain was removed during the 1915 construction of the IRT Subway under the Plaza. The Bailey Fountain was built in 1932 by architect Edgerton Swarthout and sculptor Eugene Savage. Named after Brooklyn-based financier and philanthropist Frank Bailey (1865-1953), he funded it as a memorial to his wife Mary Louise. It features an elaborate grouping of allegorical and mythical figures that includes the god of water Neptune and a pair of female nudes representing Wisdom and Felicity. It is a frequent backdrop for Wedding Photography . CURRENT USE The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument received landmark designation in 1973; in 1975, all of Grand Army Plaza became a New York City historic landmark. In 1976 the Lady Columbia figure on the ''Quadriga'' fell out of its chariot, underscoring the need for restoration of the then seventy-eight year old installation. The Arch was restored in 1980 and again in 2000. The interior of the Arch is usually closed to visitors, but is sometimes opened for art shows and performances held inside. Only the eastern end is ever open to the public, with a staircase leading to a platform at the top by the ''Quadriga''. The symmetrical western end, with its degraded stairway, is only used for storage. The area around the Arch forms the largest and busiest Traffic Circle in Brooklyn, being the convergence of Flatbush Avenue , Vanderbilt Avenue, Eastern Parkway , Prospect Park West, and Union Street. In decades past, the circle hosted Brooklyn's "Death-O-Meter", a sign admonishing drivers to "Slow Up" and displaying a continually updated tally of traffic accident deaths in the borough. For the past several years a Green Market, referred to as the 'Farmer's Market' by residents, is held on the Plaza in front of Prospect Park every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.. On weekends a free Tourist Trolley service runs between noon and 6 p.m. from Grand Army Plaza with stops at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden , the Boathouse, the Wollman Rink and the Brooklyn Museum . The Grand Army Plaza subway station is on the north end of the Plaza and furnishes transportation to the site and the nearby park. REFERENCES Books
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