Central Park has been a favorite place for New Yorkers for more than a hundred years. Back in 1853, the city authorities allocated a large plot of land (700 acres), which was to become the “green lungs” of the then overpopulated Manhattan.
The construction of Central Park was somewhat delayed, the competition for the project was announced back in 1857, the models for creating the main green zone of New York were Hyde Park in London and Parisian Bois de Boulogne. The winning project was created by American journalist and landscape architect Frederick Olmsted together with English architect Calvert Vox.
However, Olmsted turned out to be not the best manager for such a large-scale construction, there were delays in the construction of the park, waste of budgetary funds and other violations. In addition, 14 thousand cubic meters of fertile soil had to be brought to the territory of the future Central Park, as the local soil was not suitable for successful plant cultivation.
Despite the numerous difficulties, Central Park was opened to the public in 1873. However, before becoming the most popular place for recreation and sports, it had to undergo several more reconstructions, during which sports fields and jogging paths, as well as bicycle paths were equipped.
Today, Central Park is the largest green pedestrian zone in the Big Apple, located on Manhattan Island, between 110th and 59th Streets and Eighth and Fifth Avenues, and has a strictly rectangular shape. The length of the park – 4 kilometers, and width – only 800 meters, the total area – 3.4 square kilometers (for comparison – it is almost twice the area of Monaco). Each year, Central Park in New York City is visited by about 25 million people and is the most visited park in the United States.