NYC 's Central Park - New Yorkled

In and around 1850, New York City's leading merchants and bankers-seconded by many of its newspaper editors campaigned to create a grand, public park as a way of establishing New York's credentials as an international capital. Such a park, moreover, would provide appealing scenic vistas through which members of their class could ride their carriages.

After two years of debate, in 1853 the state legislature authorized New York City to acquire more than seven hundred acres in upper Manhattan for Central Park. After a design competition in which politics figured greatly in the outcome, the park commissioners selected the Greensward Plan of the English-immigrant architect Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. On May 17, 1858, Olmsted was appointed architect in chief of the Central Park project, and, with Vaux, strove to make the first American park a work of art. (And succeed they did!)

When the project was begun, the site was an area containing pig farms and squatters' shacks; twenty years and the labor of more than thirty-eight hundred workers were required to construct the hills, lakes, and paths which became so important to New Yorkers at the time and truly well appreciated today. Central Park established Olmsted's reputation and became the prototype for urban parks across the United States.

Vaux and Olmsted crafted their design largely according to the English pastoral tradition. The designers proposed open meadows and picturesque woodlands that would offer a refreshing remedy to the bustle and monotony of city streets. They further separated the park from the city by sinking the four commercial roads that crossed the park beneath the surface so ordinary traffic would not interfere with the continuous movement of parkgoers' views.

In mid 1858 portions of the park were opened to the public and in December 1858 it was opened to ice skaters.

Did You Know? Central Park has:

• 32 statues
• 9,000 benches
• 12 ball fields
• 21 playgrounds

Did you also know that:

• Sheep actually lived in the Sheep Meadow from 1864-1934
• Central Park is 843 acres
• If you walk entirely around Central Park you'd cover 6 miles
• Over 170 films have been shot in Central Park