Arch at Washington Park

The Washington Square Arch, designed by Stanford White and completed in marble in 1892, marks the foot of Fifth Avenue at the edge of Greenwich Village. It was built to celebrate the centennial of George Washington's inauguration and has been the symbol of the neighborhood ever since.

Photographed May 2013. This is the arch seen close and from the corner, looking up the marble pier as a shaft of sunlight rakes down the stone against a streaked sky. One of the Washington figures is just visible at the base — the monument as sheer mass rather than postcard.