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HERE

Famed Garage Where Robert Caro Cracked the Robert Moses Code Now Gated Off

February 26, 2020 | 2:54 PM
in HISTORY, NEWS
17


The famed garage looks nondescript from the outside.

By Skip Card

One of the holy sites of investigative journalism in New York City has been fenced off from public view – although the site is so obscure that few people realize its significance. In fact, it may be the second most famous garage in journalism — after the one in Virginia where Bob Woodward would meet Deep Throat during the Watergate era.

Tall chain-link gates were recently installed to seal up the entrances to the little-known underground parking garage beneath Riverside Park’s 79th Street Boat Basin Café. Today, the garage is used largely to store maintenance supplies and Parks Department vehicles. But in the 1960s and ’70s the garage contained a secret trove of documents that helped journalist Robert Caro write “The Power Broker,” the Pulitzer-winning biography of Robert Moses. Over nearly six decades, while serving in a dozen unelected posts such as city parks commissioner and Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority chairman, Moses held iron-fisted control over not only the region’s parks but also highways, bridges, tunnels and the New York World’s Fair.

Moses, his staff, his family and anyone who wanted a government contract wouldn’t talk to Caro, and Moses’s papers were closed to the public and press. Without documentation, Caro’s groundbreaking work was seriously hindered. But a journalist named Mary Perot Nichols told Caro that forgotten carbon copies of communiqués from Moses were stored in the Boat Basin’s garage, and she gave him a key. In an interview published in 2014 in Harper’s magazine, Caro recalled going to the garage.

“When I went there the first time, I turned the key and tugged the door open, and it’s a huge garage. But there are no trucks. I turned on the light — they had just a couple of bare bulbs — and there against the far wall was this entire row of four-drawer file cabinets containing not just carbons but thirty years of memos, orders, and directives from Robert Moses to the Parks Department.”

Caro couldn’t remove any documents, so he and his wife, Ina, regularly hauled a primitive copy machine to the garage. The couple worked in the garage daily for several months, taking notes and copying documents. As Caro recalled, his work drew unwanted attention.

“Now, the parkies — these guys in their green Parks Department uniforms, we called them parkies then — they didn’t know what I was doing there, exactly, but they vaguely knew it was something that the commissioner, as they all still referred to him, wouldn’t like. So whenever we went out — if we went for lunch, or if we both went out to the bathroom or something — they would unscrew the light bulbs. It would be pitch-black when we got back. After a while Ina and I would arrive in the morning, and I’d have a packet of four light bulbs in my attaché case.”


Inside the gate.

Those memos and other documents provided a vital breakthrough during the seven years of work that went into writing “The Power Broker.” They gave Caro the paper record he required to demonstrate how Moses used almost every aspect of a public works project to wield political influence.

“To us, a public work — a bridge, let’s say — is a transportation device. To Robert Moses, a bridge was also a source of power. Every aspect of it was a source of power. For example, there was no terrorism then; the Triborough Bridge was not going to fall down. There’s no risk. Whoever got to write the insurance policies on the structure would make a lot of money. So Moses would parcel out the policies to politicians who were insurance brokers on the basis of how many votes they controlled in Albany. I found memos in the Moses file that said just that: Jim Roe [a Democratic boss in Queens] has twelve votes in Albany. Give him 18 percent of the insurance premiums. So-and-so controls three votes. Give him 4 percent of the premiums. That sort of thing.”

A Parks Department spokeswoman said Tuesday the chain-link gates were installed recently as a security measure in advance of construction work that will begin this year in and around the Boat Basin Café, which closed in October. Work is expected to last four years as crews renovate the café, its circular rotunda, the traffic circle and the underground garage. Park operations have been moved to a different location in anticipation of the work, and the garage will not be used during renovations.

Until the gates were added, anyone could follow Riverside Park’s broad bike paths into the twin entrances of the garage, which is dug into the hillside beneath the circular turnaround where 79th Street meets the Hudson River. Intrepid folks who ignored “Authorized Personnel Only” signs could walk down a broad ramp to a large, dimly lit garage coated in pigeon droppings and dust. The garage currently contains a few vehicles, several caches of supplies and a few tents suggesting work sites. No file cabinets are visible, although the darkness and dirt discourage exploration.


Inside the garage.

But those who appreciate solid investigative journalism might stand beneath that low ceiling and imagine Robert and Ina Caro doing the hard, tedious research that would ultimately shed light on one of New York’s most powerful historic figures.

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Dewy
Dewy
3 years ago

Finally I can say this and really mean it… OK Boomer!

0
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Leon
Leon
3 years ago

Great story – thank you for sharing!

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Reply
Blanche
Blanche
3 years ago

Wonderful article — thank you. And The Power Broker is still as relevant as ever (well worth the read!).

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Robert Sheridan
Robert Sheridan
3 years ago

I understand way back (70s-80s; long before cafe, etc.) that slips in the Marina use to include a parking spot. There were folks who would pay the Marina rental to get the parking spot at a bargain, boat or not.

Empty garage looks like that isn’t the deal these days – a lot more boats than cars (and the calibre of boat is significantly improved.)

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Roberta Gratz
Roberta Gratz
3 years ago

Mary Nichols is an unsung hero in many ways and an influencial Village Voice reporter!! Roberta Brandes Gratz

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Mary
Mary
3 years ago

What a fascinating and important piece of UWS trivia. Thank you for this reporting!

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Carolina Jules
Carolina Jules
3 years ago

My late husband’s absolutely favorite book!! Wish he could have read this article.

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S. Hayes
S. Hayes
3 years ago

It is nearly impossible to live in NY and not come in contact with a Robert Moses project, like it or not. Caro’s book is a must read for anyone truly interested in understanding
one of the principle figures who “shaped” NY.
Having recognized Mr. Caro and stopped him to
praise his work on Lyndon Johnson and Moses, I can tell you he was gracious in hearing impromptu praise from a stranger. This story about his (and Ina’s) research is the kind of work that a handful of writers do when pursuing truth in history. Simply Inspiring!

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stu
stu
3 years ago
Reply to  S. Hayes

Caro published a recent piece in the New Yorker about how he uncovered information on Johnson to write his book. Amazing journalism..

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Aaron Biller
Aaron Biller
3 years ago

Excellent, informative writing!

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Reply
AL
AL
3 years ago

Fascinating article!! Thank you!

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Reply
Susan Bernofsky
Susan Bernofsky
3 years ago

Thank you for this excellent story!

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Reply
Ruth Sharp
Ruth Sharp
3 years ago

What happened to the documents?

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Reply
Skip Card
Skip Card
3 years ago
Reply to  Ruth Sharp

The city Parks Department kindly provided this information about what happened to the documents once stored in the Boat Basin garage:

In 1986, Parks and the Municipal Archives joined forces to remove, preserve and catalogue the Parks administrative records formerly stored at the 79th Street Boat Basin Garage. Since 1988, the Parks archives of that era have been stored in the Municipal Archives and available to the general public. They are stored in chronological order by year, and alphabetical order by topic within each year, and researchers can request an appointment to view their contents.

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NYC history buff
NYC history buff
3 years ago

GREAT story; and also (STEEL-yourself) IRONic. According to Wikipedia et. al., Riverside Park, as we know it, was basically created by Robert Moses.

Much earlier (1910) the park and adjacent Riverside Drive were in place, but the New York Central’s West Side Line tracks blocked access to the river.

Then, in the 1930’s, Moses’ “West Side Improvement Plan”:
1. created a tunnel to house the tracks, and;
2. extended the park over that tunnel (which is why the park’s flower gardens also have large ventilation gratings for that tunnel.

As your local librarian might say, “Check-it-out”

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Sarah
Sarah
3 years ago

Great article.

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Reply
Michal
Michal
3 years ago

This is fantastic! Though of course now I wish I had known about it sooner so I could have seen it for myself.

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Reply

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