Central Park covers 843 acres, which is 6% of Manhattan, New York.
Its hours of operation are from 6:00 am until 1:00 am.

The Park stretches from Central Park South (59th St.) to 110th St. at the northern end and from 5th Ave. on the East Side to Central Park West (8th Ave.) on the West Side.

Central Park is a great place to escape from the tall buildings and chaos of New York City streets. The Central Park Conservancy offers many different free walking tours year-round that are a great way to get acquainted with Central Park

Central Park was the first landscaped public park in the United States. Advocates of creating the park--primarily wealthy merchants and landowners--admired the public grounds of London and Paris and urged that New York needed a comparable facility to establ ish its international reputation. A public park, they argued, would offer their own families an attractive setting for carriage rides and provide working-class New Yorkers with a healthy alternative to the saloon. After three years of debate over the park site and cost, in 1853 the state legislature authorized the City of New York to use the power of eminent domain to acquire more than 700 acres of land in the center of Manhattan.

The design for Central Park was conceived by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, who submitted their "Greenswald Plan" for Central Park during a contest organized by the Central Park Commission.

When Central Park first opened in the winter of 1859 it was the first artificially landscaped park in the United States. Olmstead and Vaux's design integrated formal and pastoral elements throughout the park, offering visitors everything from formal walkways like The Mall and Literary Walk to the wild, woodsy area of the Ramble.

Central Park is a great place for picniking, listening to music and exploration.

There are many fun, free events in Central Park, particularly in the summer.

Central Park Architecture

- Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux in 1857.
- Combined pastoral, picturesque and formal elements.
- Essentially created the idea of landscape architecture -- everything in the park is man-made.

Central Park External Links:

Central Park

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Tags: park, new york, manhattan, united states, landscape

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Category: Travel  - ( Travel Archive)

Date Added: 19 January '08

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