A Guide to NYC's Central Park
History and Directions to New York's Central Park
Although an entire trip can be spent exploring Central Park, here is a brief history and directions for travelers visiting Manhattan's largest park.
Like a body of water in the middle of a desert, Central Park is a true oasis. Surrounded by concrete and brick walls of towering office buildings and apartment complexes, Central Park boasts 843 acres of parkland in the centre of the borough of Manhattan allowing New Yorkers and tourists alike to enjoy a mid-summer’s day picnic on a vast sprawling green lawn or get to see a penguin up close in the middle of America’s largest city.
History of the Park
What most people don’t know about the park is that rather than the city having been built around a natural park that was left as-is, the park itself, like the buildings surrounding it, is actually the work of architects, builders and designers. The park’s design was to be determined by a landscape design contest held in 1857. Frederick Law Olmsted, also the landscape designer of another city park, Prospect Park, and Calvert Vaux, an English architect, were the developers of the winning design called the “Greensward Plan.”
Construction on the park began in 1860 and continued until 1873. In the process, the 1,600 or-so New Yorkers who were living within the park’s boundaries were forced to leave. Over the thirteen years of construction, approximately half of a million cubic feet of soil had to be brought in from New Jersey. The original land in the park was so rocky that the large boulders that were found throughout the park needed to be blasted out in order to make room for the trees, shrubs and ponds which are now found throughout the park. Many of these boulders, however, are still found throughout the park.
Where is the Park and How to Get There
The boundaries of the park create a perfect rectangle. To the North and South, the park spans between 110th Street and 59th Street/Central Park South. To the East and West, the park runs between Fifth Avenue and Central Park West. The park is approximately 2.5 miles long and 0.5 miles wide.
The park is very simple to get to. By car/taxi, it is accessible by any of the streets mentioned above. As well, there are several traverses, or sunken roads, that run through the park. Some of them include 79th Street, 86th Street and 97th Street. The park is also easily accessible by the New York subway system. There are various stations that have stops either directly on the border of the park or within a block or two of it. The park is serviced by the 1, 2, 3, 9, A, B, C, D and Q subway lines.
With well-over a square mile of park space, Central Park has an array of activities for visitors of all ages. For a guide to what you can see and do in the park, refer to the articles A Central Park Water Guide, Visiting the Central Park Zoo and Central Park Skating and Amusement
