Bronze Statues On Soldiers And Sailors Memorial Arch Getting Facelift

Have you noticed people working on the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Grand Army Plaza this week?

That’s because the NYC Parks’ Citywide Monuments Conservation Program (CMCP) is preserving the bronze statues on the arch thanks to financial support from Richard J. Schwartz and the David Schwartz Foundation.

Brooklyn’s triumphal arch commemorates Union forces in the Civil War and features striking bronze sculptures by famed artists Frederick MacMonnies, Thomas Eakins, and William O’Donovan. The statue at the top of the arch is called Quadriga: The Triumphal Progress of Columbia and was completed in 1898.

Massive statues representing the Army and Navy, completed in 1900, stand at mid-level. And large, equestrian portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant adorn the interior of the archway.

The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch is among the many monuments throughout New York that will receive professional care by NYC Parks’ CMCP, which preserves the city’s cultural legacy and provides hands-on conservation training to graduate-level apprentices.