#13. INSIDE THE ARCH

#13. INSIDE THE ARCH            

I often look up at the top of the Washington Square Arch. Once I got to look down from its roof (but I’ll not tell how).

Its most famous climbers made it to the top one chilly night in January 1917. Six bohemian revolutionaries snuck inside and trekked up the circular stone stairway to the roof. The most famous were artists John Sloan and Marcel DuChamp, joined by three actors and poet Gertrude Drick. 

Just for fun? Nope. They strongly opposed the United States getting into World War I. They carried with them hot water bottles to sit on, candles, food to eat, a thermos of tea -- and probably some liquor. They fired off cap pistols, blew up red balloons they hung from the top of the Arch, and read aloud a proclamation the poet wrote announcing the “Free and Independent Republic of Washington Square.”

 Alas, three months later the US entered the war. Later in life John Sloan called Greenwich Village a “liberal radical small town.”

It still is.