Upon this spot are a number of trophies, among the most interesting of which is a portion of the old chain that, during the Revolutionary War, was stretched across the river from just above Gee’s Point to Constitution Island to prevent the passage of the British ships.

On a wooden carriage is a large Armstrong gun, captured at Fort Fisher during the Civil War, and nearby are many other guns taken in the Mexican and Spanish Wars. The Swartzkopf torpedo inclosed in an iron railing was captured from the Spanish cruiser Viscaya in the war with Spain, and the twenty-pound stone ball was brought from Smyrna, Turkey.

The polished monolith of granite nearby upon whose tip stands winged “Fame,” poised with trumpet and outstretched wreath, is Battle Monument. The names which may be read upon its rolls are the victims of the Regular Army of 1861, to whose memory their comrades in arms have created this beautiful memorial.

IN MEMORY
OF THE
OFFICERS AND MEN
OF THE
REGULAR ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES
WHO FELL IN BATTLE DURING THE
WAR OF THE REBELLION
THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED BY THEIR
SURVIVING COMRADES

In the words of the late Colonel Larned, “this memorial was not built by a grateful country, but by voluntary offerings from the hard-won pay of comrades in the field within hearing of the roar of battle, and in sight of the dead whose memory it preserves.... It is but right to add that the designer, Stanford White, and the sculptor, Frederick MacMonnies, have given a generous and enthusiastic labor to the work, far beyond the money recompense received, and in the true spirit of the artist and patriotic citizen.”

View up the Hudson River from Trophy Point

Toward the east is an equestrian bronze statue of the Father of our Country, seated upon his charger and with hand raised toward the Academy buildings as if in benediction of the institution that he labored so hard to establish. In these days of materialism, it is interesting to note that this magnificent gift was recently made to the Academy by someone who refused to disclose his name. The base of the pedestal bears the simple inscription “Presented by a Patriotic Citizen.”

The hotel, just in the rear of the Washington Monument, was built in 1829, and with the exception of a wing that was added in 1850, it has remained practically unchanged. It is not difficult to imagine, therefore, that its appointments fail to satisfy the luxurious tastes of present-day Americans, so that many complaints are heard, and not a few jokes passed at its expense. One humorist remarked that Washington was raising his hand not in benediction of the Academy, but in a warning to the guests to keep away from the hotel.

From the hotel, a steep little graveled path entices the visitor into a most enchanting walk that skirts the steep precipice along the river. For three-quarters of a mile, Flirtation Walk pursues its way with its windings and abrupt turnings, its ascents and descents, past the site of the old chain Battery, and farther on past old Lantern Battery on Gee’s Point, past the Bachelor Officers’ quarters, until at the base of Cullum Hall it ends in Kosciusko’s Garden. The latter is a cool little sheltered plateau, said to have been a favorite of the Pole. When the trees are in bloom, to stroll along the Walk is to feel the delicacy of nature, to behold the quintessence of her refinement. The foliage seems like maiden-hair fern through which charming little vistas of the river and the opposite bank are framed. On summer days it is a favorite for the cadets and their girls, who wander along its graveled path whiling away the time, or who seek out the choice nooks and screen themselves from profane eyes with a gaily colored parasol.