A private heiress blocked public access to a federally eased road to the beach

Evidence

The beach could be reached only by a road that crossed an adjacent, privately owned property, but the federal government had purchased an easement for public use of that road. When, however, the adjacent property was purchased by Mrs. Oliver Belmont, a cold-eyed grande dame famed for her priceless parure of emeralds and for her “Marble House” at Newport, a white marble structure whose pilasters and capitals were modeled on, although somewhat larger than, those of the Temple of the Sun at Baalbek, she erected across the southern edge of the property, stretching from one side of the peninsula to the other, a wall made of solid concrete three feet thick, twelve feet high, topped with sharp black spikes and iron dragons’ heads. Persons who asked the armed guards stationed at the massive iron gate to allow them to pass were informed that the federal government had “surrendered” its easement and that the road could be used only by persons “having official business” at the lighthouse—a fact federal officials brusquely confirmed. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 664

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the base-closure/displacement pattern in Base Nation; private wealth overriding public rights of way echoes how state actors erase public access. — connects to: Barons seized public beach access by condemning widows’ shorefront property — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 663