The Cliff Walk is 3 miles of Gilded Age opulence & sea views

This "summer cottage" was built back in 1860, and in 1911 it was sold by Edmund Schermerhorn to another well-to-do family, the Morris-Gallatins. It remained with them until the 1980s, when they bequeathed it to the Newport Preservation Society. It still contains many of the original furnishings from the Morris-Gallatins, including some important paintings and family documents, and is one of the most well-decorated properties on the walk.

The second largest mansion in town is the chateaux-like Ochre Court, built by Ogden Goelet, an investment banker and competitive yachtsman (which is the most New England thing I've ever heard of.) He and his wife only lived there for eight weeks at a time each summer... which is insane, considering at cost $4.5 million to build back in 1892. It has 50 rooms and was staffed by twenty-seven house servants, eight coachmen and grooms, and twelve gardeners. The family then gifted the mansion to the Religious Sisters of Mercy in 1947, and the nuns (who lived in the servants quarters in the basement) used it to found Salve Regina University. Today, it houses the administrative offices for the college.

By far, the most famous Cliff Walk mansion is The Breakers. The Italian Renaissance-style home was built for Cornelius Vanderbilt II. With its Italian marble and French decor, it was meant to immitate the lavish homes of historically wealthy European families. With 70 rooms, it was the largest and most opulent of all of the Newport mansions. Beyond the expensive decor, the house is also tricked out with all kinds of old-school ammenities, like an elaborate dumbwaiter and intercom system for the servants, a special kitchen just for preparing confections, and a bedroom with four closets to accomodate for one daughter's seven daily outfit changes.

Chateau Sur-Mer was the biggest mansion on the block until the Vanderbilts came along in the 1890s. It is utterly lavish, and is one of the few homes here built for year-round use, as the Wetmore family, who built it, were from New England and made Newport their home. William Shepard Wetmore was a merchant who brokered goods from China, line tea, silk, spices, and paper, and furnished his home with unusual objects he collected on his travels. It's now a museum.

Isaac Bell was a cotton merchant, and the brother-in-law of the publisher of the New York Herald. It is built in the unique shingle style, which was popular in the Victorian era and is marked by wood detailing on the outside. The inside had a Japanese-inspired open floor plan... that is, until it was divided into apartments and turned into the world's most luxurious nursing home. It was bought by the Newport Preservation Society and restored to its former glory in the 1990s.

Kingscote is a dramatic Gothic Revival-style mansion constructed in the 1830s by a Southern plantation owner named George Noble Jones. It was sold to the King family when Jones left Newport at the start of the Civil War, and the King family kept the mansion, adding on tons more space, until the 1970s. It was one of the earlier Newport mansions that heavily influenced later homes. It's now open for tours.

Rosecliff was built by a silver heiress, the daughter of one of the original men who discovered the Comstock lode. The building was inspired by the Palace of Versailles... and was used as a filming location for the 1970's movie adaptation of The Great Gatsby. The second family to own the mansion was the Monroes, a southern clan from New Orleans who were known for their laid-back and easy-going parties, as opposed to the very formal affairs other couples hosted. They then donated it to the Preservation Society of Newport County, who opened it for tours.

The Astors' Beechwood Mansion is one of the older homes, built in 1850 for Daniel Parrish, a merchant from New York. It was later sold to the wealthy Astor family. John Jacob Astor IV died on the Titanic, and his wife Madeleine (who survived the disaster) inherited the place, eventually turning the entire third floor into her personal closet. The Astors also provided tours of the estate to tourists during the off-season. The 39-room estate has since been turned into an art museum.

Marble House was built by Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt (William's older brother Cornelius was the one who built The Breakers). The 50 room mansion cost $11 million to build... and if you keep your eyes peeled, you can see the Chinese Tea House that Alva built to host suffragette rallies.

And, of course, when Alva Vanderbilt divorced William, she left Marble House (which she owned) and moved down the street into Belcourt Castle with her new husband, Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont. Belmont hated the nouveau riche who began building flashy homes on Bellevue Avenue, so out of spite, he made the entrance to his home off a different street, Ledge Road, and he had the back of his home facing Bellevue Avenue. Belmont eventually sold the place and it changed hands quite a few times, and even was the site of a million-dollar heist by bank robbers in the 1980s... although police managed to recover a lot of the stolen goods, some objects remain at large. While it had been previously open for tours, it is now a private estate, although you can walk by and admire it from afar.