The Madison guide book, Madison, Wisconsin - Surrounded by Reality

TOUR NUMBER SIX.53a separate channel in rippling falls to join the main streambeneath the Sherman avenue bridge.For a quarter ofa mile in the direction of the city this avenue is borderedby huge willows meeting overhead like the arches ofsome vast cathedral. It is known as the " willow drive."Twelve thousand dollars have been expended upon Tenneypark.Extensive operations are now being made bythe Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association forimproving Yahara river. Water street will be macadamizedand the bank graded and sown.At E. Washingtonavenue an arched bridge costing $8,000, the giftof Hon. Halle Steensland, will cross the river. The eastbank will be laid out into lawn, with a carriage wa}^along its entire length. The Yahara river improvementswill cost some $34,000, of which the city gives$4,000; the rest has been contributed by citizens as agift to landscape art.Fifty years ago this place was an untroubled wilderness.From the capitol to the mouth of the Yahara theonly path was an Indian trail along the Mendota shore;wagons could not pass. The only bridge was a threefootelm felled across the stream.Here the early settlerscame to fish by lantern light. We may guess theiramazement could they see the place to-day.We may now ride east one mile on Sherman avenueto the tracks of the Northwestern railroad. Truck anddairy farms Ime the way. On the left, not far from thebridge, isthe extensive estate of Mr. Edward M. Fuller.At the railroad tracks we enter Farwell Drive and followit for five miles to the State Asylum for the insane