New York is a city that tries hard not to forget its fallen soldiers, especially those who died in global wars with many casualties.
All over Gotham are Great War doughboys in bronze, solemn World War II-era plaques with the names of neighborhood enlistees, and celebratory statues and arches to honor the dead of the Revolution and Civil War.
But you don’t see many monuments to the Spanish-American War of 1898. What was that one about?
This 10-week conflict grew out of Cuba’s fight for independence from Spain. It ended with America declaring war on Spain, which quickly forced the Spanish to give up Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines and made the U.S. a player in international affairs.
Most of the 2,446 U.S. casualties stemmed from tropical diseases, not combat. But that didn’t make a difference to the city leaders in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. They commissioned a Classical-style monument to the men of the borough who died during this brief but pivotal war.
Like many neighborhood monuments, it’s easy to miss. The memorial sits in a small patch of green in Graham Triangle at the intersection of Third Avenue, Lincoln Avenue, and 137th Street—probably a busier intersection when it was dedicated in 1919.
Surrounded by a graceful iron fence, the granite pedestal supports a slender column with a globe on top.
The bas-relief on the pedestal is made with bronze from the USS Maine, per NYC Parks. This American battleship exploded and sank in Havana Harbor and is considered the spark (fanned in part by incendiary media coverage and the “remember the Maine” rallying cry) that ushered the U.S. to declare war.
Dedications of monuments were big events at the time, and the New York Times covered the parade and ceremony that unveiled the monument—as well as the base of a World War I monument that was yet to be completed at the south end of the triangle.
“A large crowd was present at the unveiling yesterday afternoon of a monument dedicated to the memory of men who died in the war with Spain, and of the base of a monument to be erected to the fourteen men of Local Board 1 of the Bronx who died in the world war,” the Times reported.
The World War I monument—a thicker column graced with an eagle at the top—got its dedication in 1921. The two memorials forge a poignant bond at this intersection of older Bronx buildings and newer public housing.
There’s a few other Spanish-American War memorials in New York, like the allegorical USS Maine monument at the Columbus Circle entrance to Central Park—paid for with donations by readers of William Randolph Hearst’s New York Morning Journal, which helped build the case for the war.
It’s a triumphant piece of civic architecture and calls out the names of the 266 U.S. sailors who died in the explosion. But there’s something appealingly graceful about the more modest Bronx memorial, which contains no names or exultant icons but a short inscription:
“To the brave men of Bronx Borough who gave their lives for their country in the war with Spain.”
[Last photo: NYC Parks]