Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. This huge park to gather today saxophone, blues singers, tourists and college chess players all the time, was once a swampy area in which people are challenged to duels, executions were practiced and had even served as a mass grave. One of the biggest attractions of the park, is Stanford White Arch, a marble arch 22 meters high, which was initially built in wood, and served for the artist Marcel Duchamp in 1916, climbed to the top it, declaring the park "free and independent republic of Washington Square, New Bohemia". Arch of Washington: In 1889, to celebrate the centennial of George Washington's inauguration as president of the United States, a monument of great plaster and wood was erected in memory of Arch on Fifth Avenue, just north of the park. The arch-shaped monument made of plaster and wood, was so popular that in 1892, a white marble arch, designed by architect Stanford, New York, was erected, had 77 feet (23 meters high) and was built just inside the park. During excavations in the eastern arch, they found human remains, a casket and a headstone of 1803, which were discovered to 3 mts. below ground level. The inscription on the arch reads: Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God. - Washington. The white arc is modeled in 1806, after it was built the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. In 1918 two statues of George Washington were added to the north. The first source was completed in 1852. The fountain was replaced in 1872. The monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi was opened in 1888.