NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: MICHAEL ARONSON

It was exactly 102 years ago today, July 9, 1913, that the Giants baseball team gave New York City a stairway that fans used to descend from the heights of Coogan’s Bluff to the Polo Grounds ballpark and to climb home again after games.
A newspaper of the time (the Daily News first appeared six years later) wrote that the “stairway had been under consideration by the Park Department for some time, but, owing to the lack of funds, the city could not build it.”
Today, the stadium is, of course, a faded memory — with the stairs the only remaining relic of the Polo Grounds.
For decades, the 80-step steel structure rotted and was fenced off. Then, seven years ago this editorial column called for rehabbing the stairs as a way to connect two tiers of Highbridge Park.
Recalling generosity of yesteryear, the Daily News called on the Giants (now of San Francisco) and the four other clubs that once called the Polo Grounds home (the Yankees and the Mets and the NFL’s Giants and Jets) to chip in to a reconstruction fund.
The quintet came through in high style, donating a total of $500,000, with then-Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer adding $400,000. Major League Baseball gave $50,000.
Using that $950,000, the Parks Department has rebuilt the stairs and put them to public use. Today, marking the anniversary, the baseball and football Giants, Yanks, Mets, Jets and Major League Baseball will be recognized at a rededication ceremony.
A hearty salute to them all.