Popular Official Guide to the New York Zoological Park 4
Pay Admission.—On every Monday and Thursday, save when either of those
days falls on a holiday, all members of the Zoological Society who
surrender coupons from their membership tickets, and all other persons
holding tickets from the Society, will be admitted free. All other
persons seeking admission will be admitted on payment of twenty-five
cents for each adult, and fifteen cents for each child under twelve
years of age. Tickets are sold only at the entrance gates.
Holidays on Pay Days.—Whenever a legal holiday falls on a Monday or
Thursday, admission to the Park will be free on that day.
Hours for Opening and Closing.—From May 1st to November 1st the gates
will be opened at 9 A. M. daily, and closed half an hour before sunset.
From November 1st to May 1st the gates will open at 10 A. M.
Entrances, Walks, etc.—The portion of the Zoological Park situated west
of the Boston Road has been enclosed. Access to this area is provided by
six entrances, one situated at each corner—one on the Boston Road and
one at the bridge on Pelham Avenue. The latter is a carriage entrance
for visitors wishing to drive to the north end of Baird Court. From all
these entrances broad walks lead into the Park and through it, reaching
all the collections of animals now installed.
Carriage Roads.—The only wagon road which enters the central portion of
the Park now occupied by animals is the Service Road, which enters from
the Southern Boulevard, at 185th Street, and runs eastward, to the
Service Building, Reptile House, Bear Dens, and Rocking Stone
Restaurant.
_This road is for business purposes only_, and is not open for the
vehicles of visitors. It is utterly impossible to admit carriages to the
_center_ of the Park, save those of officers entering on business, and
_visitors must not ask for exceptions to this very necessary rule_.
Automobile and Carriage Entrance.—A fine public carriage road and
concourse, leading from Pelham Avenue Bridge and to the upper end of
Baird Court, was completed in 1908. This drive is open to carriages or
motors, daily, and it affords easy access to the most important group of
buildings. It is subject to the same regulations as all other entrances,
except that carriages and automobiles are admitted.
[Illustration: THE BOAT HOUSE, BRONX LAKE.]
The Boston Road, which runs through the Park from south to north, near
the western bank of the Bronx Lake, is open at all hours. It has
recently—and for the first time—been finely improved by the Park
Department for the Borough of the Bronx, and a drive through it affords
a fine view of the eastern side of the Buffalo Range, and the finest
portion of the heavy forest of the Zoological Park.
As a matter of course, the ranges of the buffalo, antelope, deer, moose,
and elk, are in full view from the Kingsbridge Road and Southern
Boulevard, and the Zoological Society has planned that the view from
those avenues shall be left open sufficiently that the herds may be seen
to good advantage.
The Rocking Stone Restaurant, No. 46, has been designed to serve all the
purposes that its name implies. It contains dining-rooms in which full
meals may be obtained, lunch-rooms wherein choice food will be served at
popular prices, and in the basement, toilet-rooms will be found.
The Service Building, No. 28.—Near the Reptile House, and at the
geographical center of the enclosed grounds, is situated a building
which contains the Bureau of Administration of the Zoological Park. Here
will be found the offices of the Chief Clerk, several other Park
officers, and the workshops and storerooms.
Children lost in the Park, and property lost or found, should be
reported without delay at the Chief Clerk’s office in this building. The
telephone call of the Zoological Park is 953 Tremont.
Wheeled Chairs.—By persons desiring them, wheeled chairs can always be
obtained at the entrances, by applying to gatekeepers, or at the office
of the Chief Clerk, in the Service Building. The cost is 25 cents per
hour; with an attendant, 50 cents per hour.
Arrangement of Collections.—Inasmuch as the physical features of the
Zoological Park grounds were important factors in locating the various
collections of animals, a perfect zoological arrangement was impossible.
The existing plan represents the limit of acceptable possibilities in
grouping related animals.
[Illustration: BOATING ON BRONX LAKE.]
The entire southern and western sides of the Park are exclusively
devoted to the Hoofed Animals, in addition to which other members of
that Order will be found at the Elephant and Small-Mammal Houses. The
Carnivorous Animals will be found at the Lion House, Wolf and Fox Dens,
Small-Mammal House and Bear Dens. The Birds are in two groups; one in
the lower end of Bird Valley, and the Large Bird-House on Baird Court;
the other around the Wild-Fowl Pond, south of the Wolf Dens.
The existence of six entrances to the Park renders it impossible to lay
out an all-embracing “tour” for the visitor, and develop the Guide Book
accordingly. The various collections will be handled in zoological
groups, but the various groups cannot follow each other in zoological
sequence. The table of contents and a comprehensive index will render
each item of the subject matter quickly available.
PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE GROUNDS.
The extreme length of the Park from north to south is 4,950 feet, or 330
feet less than one mile; and its extreme width is 3,120 feet, or
three-fifths of a mile. Roughly estimated, one-third of the land area is
covered by heavy forest, one-third by open forest, and the remaining
third consists of open meadows and glades. The highest point of land in
the Park is the crest of Rocking Stone Hill, the elevation of which is
94.8 feet above sea level.
Topography.—Speaking broadly, the Zoological Park is composed of granite
ridges running from north to south. In many places their crests have
been denuded of earth by the great glacier which once pushed its edge as
far south as New York City. In the valleys lying between these
glacier-scraped ridges, great quantities of sandy, micaceous soil have
been deposited; but in one spot—the Wild-Fowl Pond—what was once a
green, glacial lake fifteen feet deep, presently became a vast
rock-walled silo filled with vegetable matter and a trembling bog of
peat. Everywhere in the Park glacial boulders of rough granite or
smoothly rounded trap-rock, varying in size from a cobble-stone to the
thirty-ton Rocking Stone, have been dropped just where the warm southern
sun freed them from the ice. The Park contains thousands of them, many
of which have been removed from walks and building sites only with great
labor.
In three of the four principal valleys of the Park, bogs have been
converted into ponds, and in the largest and deepest of all lie Bronx
Lake and Lake Agassiz. The bed-rock underlying or cropping out in the
Park exhibits pink granite, gray granite, rotten gneiss, and quartz in
bewildering variety. Occasionally in trench-digging a ledge is
encountered which yields good building-stone for rough work, but usually
our rock is so full of mica as to be worthless.
The water-levels in the various portions of the Park are as follows:
Above Sea Level.
Surface of Bronx Lake 20.40 feet
Surface of Lake Agassiz 31.70 “
Surface of Cope Lake and Duck Ponds 47.00 “
Surface of Wild-Fowl Pond 65.00 “
Surface of Beaver Pond 44.00 “
The floor levels of some of the important buildings are as follows:
Above Sea Level.
Of the Antelope House 88 feet
Of the Reptile House 78 “
Of the Lion House 64 “
Of the Aquatic-Bird House 57 “
Soil.—The soil varies from rich black muck in the valleys, to light and
very dry soil, full of mica and sand, on the ridges and meadows. Where
not packed hard, the latter is very porous, and the heaviest rainfall is
quickly absorbed, or carried away on the surface. As a result, the
valleys are always moist and rich in grass, and the slopes and ridges
are always dry and warm.
Streams and Ponds.—The Zoological Park contains about 34 acres of still
water, of which Bronx Lake comprises 25 acres, Lake Agassiz 5½ acres,
Cope Lake, the Wild-Fowl Pond, and Beaver Pond together, about 3½ acres.
The two larger lakes are fed by the Bronx River, which drains a valley
about 15 miles long. Even in the driest seasons the volume of water
carried down by the Bronx River is sufficient to keep the lakes well
filled. The areas of still water available for animal collections are
very generous for an institution like this, and are highly prized.
The Waterfall.—At the lower end of Lake Agassiz, and about 300 feet
above the Boston Road Bridge, is a natural waterfall nearly 12 feet in
height, where the Bronx River falls over a rugged ledge of pink granite.
In times of high water the foaming flood that thunders over the rocks
makes an imposing spectacle, and it constitutes a most unusual feature
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