Grant's Tomb New York
National Park
It seems that homo sapiens alone learned to walk without bending their knees and hips, the way all quadrupeds do when trying out bipedal locomotion. The illustrative text was ' …in the same way Groucho Marx walked.' Remember his comical drop-kneed, high-velocity gait?
That quip reminded me of his famous brain teaser 'Who is buried in Grant’s Tomb?’ which not everyone on his show could answer correctly, despite pre-screening.
That in turn caused me to one day ride up to 122nd Street (it’s a nice, flat roadway along the Hudson River, but ascends at its end) to find out for myself if the common answer is actually correct. There are CitiBike stations to drop off your bike at 120th and Claremont and 122nd and Broadway, both about one block distant.
The tomb interior is nearly a replica of Napoleon’s Tomb at Les Invalides, in Paris, right down to the red granite.
The tomb, North America’s largest mausoleum, still compares unfavourably with Les Invalides as it does not contain even bathrooms, apparently a directive of Julia Grant, buried in the mausoleum beside her husband.
I think it was Groucho who made Grant’s Tomb famous and being famous is reason enough for some people to want to go. If that includes you, know that you will be very close to the Manhattan School of Music, Riverside Church, Columbia University and the western edge of Harlem’s 125th Street and, as you will have ridden a bicycle, all will be at your easy disposal.
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