Cliff Walk

Welcome, esteemed travelers and scholars of history, to the precipice of American ambition. We are standing on the edge of the world famous Cliff Walk in Newport, Rhode Island. …

Here at the bottom of Narragansett Avenue, we encounter our first significant historical landmark, known colloquially and officially as the Forty Steps. This specific location serves as a poignant entry point into our…

As we proceed southward, the landscape on our right opens up to reveal the pristine, sprawling campus of Salve Regina University. This is a fascinating anomaly in the world of higher education. …

Continuing along the boundary of the university campus, we arrive at the next significant architectural specimen: the Vinland Estate. Today, this structure is deeply integrated into Salve Regina University and is known to the…

As we round this particular point on the coast, the landscape dramatically opens up to reveal the undisputed monolith of the Cliff Walk: The Breakers. This is, without question, the most popular and heavily visited of all the…

As we move away from the overwhelming grandeur of The Breakers, we approach our next point of historical interest: Anglesea. This particular estate offers a sharp stylistic departure from the Italian Renaissance palace we just…

Navigating successfully over the rougher terrain, we are rewarded with the sight of a truly breathtaking architectural achievement: Rosecliff. Gleaming white against the green lawns and the blue ocean, this mansion is a…

We now arrive at a property that defines the absolute excess of the era: the astonishing Marble House. Built in eighteen ninety two, this architectural marvel was commissioned for another branch of the Vanderbilt family,…

Our path now leads us to a highly distinctive topographical feature of the walk: a small, hollowed-out passage known as the Sheep Point Tunnel. As we make our way through this narrow, stone corridor, we are passing through a…

Navigating the challenging, rocky coastline brings us to our next major architectural landmark: Rough Point. The very name of the estate seems to acknowledge the wild, unyielding nature of the terrain upon which it sits. …

Pushing further southward along the rocky promontory, we arrive at an estate appropriately named Lands End. Originally finished in the year nineteen hundred, this property has been extensively remodeled in the intervening decades. …

We have reached the final architectural marvel on our guided route: a magnificent estate simply and elegantly known as The Waves. This property carries a unique history of destruction and rebirth. …

As our trolley rumbles north along Bellevue Avenue, carrying us away from the ocean edge and back toward the reality of the modern world, it is time to synthesize the massive amount of information we have absorbed today. We have…