Tuesday, Oct 9, Newport, Rhode Island

This morning we were off to see the "Gilded Age" mansions of Newport. Along the way, we drove past the University of Rhode Island, then across the Verrazzano Jamestown Bridge, followed by the Pell Toll Bridge to reach Middletown and on to Newport.

Our first stop was at Marble House, which was built in 1892 for William K. Vanderbuilt and is one of the most sumptuous of Newport's mansions. The house cost $11 million to build and furnish and was called a "summer cottage" The most elaborate room of this gold-and-marble edifice is the salon, with its carved and gilded woodwork, chandeliers and large ceiling painting. The house was designed by the architect Richard Morris Hunt, inspired by the Petit Trianon at Versailles. The cost of the house was reported in contemporary press accounts to be $11 million, of which $7 million was spent on 500,000 cubic feet of marble. Upon its completion, Mr. Vanderbilt gave the house to his wife as a 39th birthday present.
Unfortunately, there is no interior photography allowed.  We took a self-guided audio tour of the house, which was excellent.

After touring the house, we enjoyed lunch at the restored 1914 Chinese Teahouse.











Next, we visited "The Breakers", built in 1895 and is probably the most opulent of Newport's mansions. Though designed by American architect Richard Morris Hunt, this 70-room summer cottage of Cornelius Vanderbilt II appears more the product of  the European High Renaissance.
The mansion has approximately 65,000 sq ft (6,000 m²) of living space. The home was constructed between 1893 and 1895 at a cost of more than $12 million (approximately $335 million in today's dollars adjusted for inflation).
The Ochre Point Avenue entrance is marked by sculpted iron gates and the 30-foot (9.1 m) high walkway gates are part of a 12-foot-high limestone and iron fence that borders the property on all but the ocean side. The 250 ft × 120 ft (76 m × 37 m) dimensions of the five-story mansion are aligned symmetrically around a central Great Hall.
Part of a 13-acre (53,000 m²) estate on the seagirt cliffs of Newport, it faces east overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Rear elevation of "The Breakers".

The "cottage" is unbelievably ostentatious, to say the least!

After a short walk along the "Cliff Walk", which goes between the mansions and Rhode Island Sound, we returned to the campground.