The Washington Arch was built in 1889. It was designed by Stanford White. A fitting tribute to the father of our country to be sure, and a gem of the beaux art school of architecture. But, better than this, a great place to party and excellent vantage point to see in dawn while declaring your independence from the bourgeois world:

[Gertrude Drick] discovered a neglected but accessible staircase (now sealed) that led to the top of the Washington Square arch, an don a fall evening led Sloan, Marcel Duchamp, and three actors, . . . up there. They carried Chinese lanterns, red balloons, hot-water bags for sitting on, and supplies of food and wine. [Drick] read a Greenwich Village declaration of independence, proclaimed the existence of the republic, and everyone fired cap pistols and released the red balloons. The party went on until dawn. In the morning passersby noticed clusters of red balloons in the neighborhood trees. p 336 Low Life by Luc Sante (FSG, New York, 1991).