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Central Park remains one of the top ten favorite tourist sites |
If you’re going to visit New York City, you have to go to Central Park. It’s as simple as that.
And what better time for tourists in the Big Apple to visit Central Park than now, when the famed park is celebrating its 150th birthday this year? Summer in New York City is always a magical time, a virtual tourist haven with special concerts.
Though five boroughs (The Bronx, Queens , Brooklyn , Staten Island and Manhattan ) officially make up the city, the thousands of tourists who descend upon NYC flock to Manhattan for most of their sightseeing. Armed with their maps, guides, and advice from friends and the Internet, vacationers traipse the quirky neighborhoods of the city from Harlem down to the Financial District. And in the midst of it all is historic Central Park , an oasis from the craziness, and a cool green drink in the iron jungle.
Back in April, Central Park Conservancy President Regina S. Peruggi launched a year-long celebration of the park’s anniversary with the usual mix of grandiose speeches and presentation of upcoming events. July 19 was the pinnacle of the yearlong celebration. Thousands came for the wide variety of activities held from dawn till dusk throughout the park. Among the various activities were a kid’s run, a concert on the lawn, a “Happy Birthday” parade, storytelling, a scavenger hunt and, of course, a cake-cutting ceremony with a cake shaped like one of the beautiful water fountains in the park.
But to fully appreciate the rich heritage of Central Park , a little retrospective is in order.
A Step Back in Time
In viewing a treeless, swampy, rocky parcel of land, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux put together a vision of a “backyard” for New York City that was born as Central Park in 1858. At the time, the nearly 60,000 New Yorkers living in Manhattan were sequestered in the lower neighborhoods below 38th street.
With the noise, traffic, crowded population and pollution, Manhattanites began clamoring for an oasis. Then in a rare burst of political compromise, the city officials put together $5 million and purchased the land between 59th and 106th Streets and 5th and 8th Avenues. (Think of it as a huge rectangle.)
Olmsted and Vaux’s “Greensward Plan” design was eventually accepted for its married vision of accentuating the natural rockiness and meadows of the land while adding lush trees, shrubberies and small points of necessary architecture. But the soil was inadequate to sustain the trees, so the planners had 500,000 cubic feet of topsoil transported from New Jersey .
According to www.centralparknyc.org, nearly 10 million cartloads of stuff were brought out to the evolving park by 1873. Four man-made mini-lakes and 36 bridges and archways were built along with the sunken pathways traversed by millions of joggers, walkers and tourists today.
Twenty years after Olmsted and Vaux’s plan was approved, the park was complete. It wasn’t an easy endeavor—the two resigned numerous times when plagued by the political machinery that corrupted the city. But they persevered in the end. Since then the park has faced times of tumultuous decline and resurrection.
In 1934, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses performed the miracle of completely cleaning up Central Park along with New York ’s other parks. Moses was also responsible for bringing recreation to the park, creating 19 playgrounds, numerous ball fields, handball courts and the Wollman (ice) Rink.
But perhaps his best-known handiwork was the fairy-like architectural sites: The Chess and Checkers House, the Alice in Wonderland and Hans Christian Anderson sculptures, the popular carousel, and renovation of Tavern on the Green and the Central Park Zoo. (All must-sees for vacationers visiting the Park.)
Then after 20 years of decay and neglect, Central Park finally passed in 1980 into the hands of the Central Park Conservancy, which has been restoring and protecting the park’s landmarks and horticulture ever since. Now, no matter what the season, visitors who enter the Park can enjoy natural and manmade scenery alike.
Not to be Missed
The Park remains one of the top ten favorite tourist sites with visitors numbering 25 million each year, according to numerous guides. Sure, other beautiful landscaped parks are spread out through the United States. But none are as well known, or have such a fruitful history, or have been the subject of so many books and films as Central Park. A few fun facts:
The Park covers 843 acres, or 6 percent of Manhattan ’s total acreage.
The Reservoir Running Track is 1.58 miles long.
There are 58 miles of pedestrian walkways, but a full drive of the park is only 6.1 miles—about the same distance to walk the perimeter of the park.
You can quench your thirst at one of the 125 water fountains scattered across the park.
And of course, you can rest your tired body on one of the 8,968 benches (which would stretch for nearly 7 miles end to end) at any point during your visit.
This year is a particularly ripe time to visit Central Park and partake in the 150th birthday festivities. Most of the city’s major cultural institutions are participating throughout the year, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. |
