Some UWS history. Interesting tidbit.
https://ilovetheupperwestside.com/ol...bs-of-the-uws/
Beginning in the mid-1800s, these clubs gave the city’s sailing and boating enthusiasts a place to gather, dock their boats, and compete in regattas.
By the time yacht clubs came into fashion, the bank of the Hudson south of Midtown was too developed to be used for recreational boating. The natural beauty of the Upper West Side’s shoreline drew club founders to present day Riverside Park.
1934 abruptly brought the end of the Upper West Side’s yacht club scene. Parks commissioner and city architect Robert Moses set his sights on Riverside Park. Funded by Depression-era WPA money, Moses embarked on a project to revamp the park, bury the railway and build the West Side Highway.
In the 1950s, the club finally found a permanent home off of Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn, where it still exists today. Robert Moses’ “West Side Improvement Project” marked the end for the Columbia and Colonial yacht clubs and their clubhouses. Today, however, a visit to the 79th Street Boat Basin can give you a taste of the boating culture that was once prevalent along Riverside Park’s shoreline.
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