Central Park★5.0

Overview

Central Park is Manhattan's 843-acre green heart between the Upper West and Upper East Sides, the most visited urban park in the United States with about 42 million visitors a year and the most filmed location in the world. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won the 1857 design competition with their "Greensward Plan"; construction began that year, displacing residents including the mostly Black settlement of Seneca Village, and the park was completed in the 1870s. It is a National Historic Landmark (1963) and city scenic landmark (1974), owned by the city and managed since 1998 by the Central Park Conservancy in a public-private partnership.

The park has eight artificial lakes and ponds, woodlands, lawns, 21 playgrounds, and 6.1 miles of drives, and is divided into a North End above the Reservoir, Mid-Park, and South End. It has five visitor centers, including the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center, Belvedere Castle, the Chess & Checkers House, and the Dairy.

Top Attractions

• Bethesda Terrace and Fountain: a two-level terrace of carved sandstone above the Lake, with the Angel of the Waters statue
• The Mall and Naumburg Bandshell: a tree-lined esplanade; the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts (since 1905) are the world's oldest continuous free outdoor classical series
• Strawberry Fields: a 2.5-acre memorial to John Lennon with an "Imagine" mosaic at Central Park West and 72nd Street
• Belvedere Castle: an 1869 Olmsted and Vaux folly on Vista Rock with views and the park's weather station
• Great Lawn and Turtle Pond: a 14-acre oval lawn for sports and concerts, with the Delacorte Theater (Shakespeare in the Park)
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir: 106 acres with a 1.58-mile jogging track and cherry blossoms
• Sheep Meadow: a 15-acre lawn for sunbathing and gatherings
• Loeb Boathouse: rowboat rentals and dining on the Lake
• Conservatory Water and Alice in Wonderland statue and the Conservatory Garden
• Cleopatra's Needle: an Egyptian obelisk erected in 1881 behind the Met
• Wollman Rink: ice skating from late October to April, and Victorian Gardens in summer; also the Central Park Carousel and Zoo
• SummerStage at Rumsey Playfield: free summer concerts

Recreation includes carriage and bicycle tours, cycling, running, and sports, and the Ramble is a wooded haven for wildlife.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Central Park", "Conservatory Garden", "Sheep Meadow", "Central Park Mall", "Great Lawn and Turtle Pond", "Bethesda Terrace and Fountain", "The Ramble and Lake", "Statue of Alexander Hamilton (Central Park)", "Strawberry Fields (memorial)", "Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir", "Cleopatra's Needle (New York City)", "Belvedere Castle", and "Wollman Rink", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0