Attractions
IWalked New York City’s Battery Park – The Diving Eagle
Situated in the middle of eight granite slabs (known as the East Coast Memorial) is a large bronze eagle sculpture atop a black granite pedestal. The eagle stands atop the pedestal facing New York Harbor with a laurel wreath in its clutches as a further memorial tribute to the soldiers commemorated here. This sculpture was actually dedicated four years after the East Coast Memorial in 1963. Attending the ceremony and performing the dedication was President John F. Kennedy.
The eagle sculpture was created by an Italian-born sculptor named Albino Manca who won an open competition for the commission. Manca was born in Italy in 1898, but moved to New York when he was forty-one years old and lived in artist district of Greenwich Village. Other notable works which Mr. Manca created in his lifetime include the Gate of Life in the Queens Children’s Zoo and a collection of medals for the Vatican in Rome.
Inscribed upon the statue is the following:
1941 *** 1945
Erected by the United States of America
In Proud and Grateful Remembrance
Of her Sons
Who Gave Their Lives in Her Service
And Who Sleep in the American Coastal
Website: http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/batterypark/highlights/11995
Address: Battery Park, New York City, NY
Cost: Free.
IWalked Audio Tours To See This Site: New York City’s Lower Manhattan. (Purchase the MP3 tour here. iPhone application tour is available here. Please note, all NYC tours are now available as in-app purchases upon download of our FREE NYC Lite application, which includes a free 1.5 hour tour of a portion of the Upper West Side.)