The stream of people walking on Newport's Cliff Walk thickens in the summer. As a regular cliff walker myself, my routine is a 4 mile round trip midsection which is also the part most heavily trafficked by out-of-towners.
The path is flanked on one side by the Atlantic Ocean, bordered by bunches of flowering shrubs. The other side of the path opens to expansive lawns of mansions built in the early 1900s as summer retreats for ultra wealthy industrialists, their families, friends and (of course) their servants. Today, many of the mansions are operated as museums, open for tours. The Preservation Society of Newport County manages the mansions. That's where the point of this blog comes in. The Cliff Walk is a tourist magnet too; just like the mansions formerly owned by the Vanderbilts and the Astors. As visitors stroll the path, they pause to snap photos - of the grand homes and the ocean views.
Here is a photo of some tourists as they are about to enter the tunnel that snakes underneath the Chinese Tea House on the property of Marble House. Marble House was owned by the Vanderbilt family. http://www.newportmansions.org/explore/marble-house
By stopping to take this photo on the Cliff Walk, I probably looked like a
tourist too.
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| Newport's Cliff Walk is an Elegant Backdrop for Wedding Photos |
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| The Vanderbilt's Breakers, seen from the Cliff Walk |
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| Ocean side view of the Breakers' back yard |
tourist too.