Bow Bridge Named Most Romantic Spot in the Park

Photo via alan(ator)'s flickr

The Central Park Conservancy asked New Yorkers to pick the most romantic spot in all the park, and today they unveiled the winning location: Bow Bridge. Can't you just hear Johannes Brahms playing right now?

The bridge was given its name because of its resemblance to a violinist's bow... or maybe Cupid's bow? The CPC also notes that it was built in 1862 and designed by Central Park co-designer Calvert Vaux and his assistant Jacob Wrey Mould; it's the second-oldest cast-iron bridge in the United States; it spans sixty feet across the Lake" ... and it's most likely in a lot of engagement photos. In fact, while beautiful, it's sort of cliché, no? The people who find this spot the most romantic are probably the same people who had Monet's "Water Lilies" hanging in their college dorm room. So, leaving the confines of Central Park, where do you think the most romantic spot in Manhattan is?

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on February 8, 2010 3:33 PM

Comments [rss]

cucarachita

Linden Terrace, Fort Tryon Park, in the summer, at sunset.

Bow Bridge is too full of tourists taking pics of themselves to be romantic anymore!

Tara

I think the most romantic parts of the city have a little bid of sadness and grittyness to them, like Coney Island on a winter day.

cucarachita

Yeah, but that's romantic-lonely, not really romantic-with-someone. Has sort of a Magic Mountain romance to it. I love it in the winter, that's for sure. But in the summer, watching the old couples walk down the boardwalk on the Brighton Beach side of the boardwalk is actually sweetly romantic.

imperialnetwork

This is such a great thread. I'll add two to our growing list of so-called "lonely" romantic spots-- Dyker Beach Golf Course, at sunset on a late fall afternoon as you walk down the fairway on 13 and the Verrazzano overwhelms you.

And Lower Broadway at about 8 PM on a Friday evening, all the traders long gone for the weekend, the triumvirate of Trinity Church, the Woolworth Building, and the Chrysler Building lighting up the Canyon of Heroes.

barryap

I think it's not necessarily the grittiness as it is the solitude. Places like Coney Island and City Island are exceedingly romantic in the winter because there's no one else around. That sort of thing gets me every time.

But my vote goes to Fort Tryon park, spread out in the grass, with a view of the Hudson and the Palisades.

MrManhattan

A friend of mine (can't brag his name, he's a fairly well known artist), took an unbelievably beautiful shot of that bridge with a (tastefully posed) drop-dead gorgeous model reclining nude on the railing. I have one of the few prints, and needless to say, it's one of my most prized possessions.

The funny "only in New York" story he told me about that day was that he and the model had been, as discreetly as possible, shooting around Central Park, and they noticed at one point they were being followed. after a few quick shots here and there, (while the model was re-wrapped), he sheepishly approached them and inquired: "Excuse me, but is that a Hassleblad?" !!!

jles

please link photo and wikipedia entry for Hassleblad

negtive

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Hassleblad

Snoopy

"the same people who had Monet's "Water Lilies" hanging in their college dorm room." Those are some seriously rich kids. Aren't they afraid someone might spill some beer on it?