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NYC Central Prak

Central Park is a large public, urban parkCharity. The roughly 1,600 working-class
(843 acres or 3.41 km²; a rectangle 2.5residents occupying the area at the time were
statute miles by 0.5 statute mile, or 4 kmevicted under the rule of eminent domain
× 800 m) in the borough of Manhattan induring 1857, and Seneca Village and parts of
New York City. With about twenty-five millionthe other communities were torn down and
visitors annually, Central Park is the mostremoved in order to make room for the park.
visited city park in the United States,[1]The person responsible for carrying out the
and its appearance in many movies andevictions was the great-great grandfather of
television shows has made it among the mostfuture  New  York  Yankee  Joe  Pepitone.
famous city parks in the world. It is run by
the Central Park Conservancy, a private,During the construction of the park, Olmsted
not-for-profit organization that manages thefought constant battles with the Park
park under a contract with the New York CityCommissioners, many of whom were appointees
Department  of  Parks  and  Recreation.of the city's Democratic machine. In 1860, he
was forced out for the first of many times as
Central Park is bordered on the north by WestCentral Park's Superintendent, and was
110th Street, on the west by Central Parkreplaced by Andrew Haswell Green, the former
West, on the south by West 59th Street, andpresident of New York City's Board of
on the east by Fifth Avenue. Along the park'sEducation took over as the chairman of the
borders, these streets are usually referredcommission. Despite the fact that he had
to as Central Park North, Central Park West,relatively little experience, he still
and Central Park South, respectively. (Fifthmanaged to accelerate the construction, as
Avenue retains its name along the easternwell as to finalize the negotiations for the
border.)purchase of an additional 65 acres (26 ha) at
the north end of the park between 106th and
The park was designed by Frederick Law110th Streets, which would be used as the
Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, both of whom later'rugged' part of the park, its swampy
created Brooklyn's Prospect Park. While muchnortheast corner dredged and reconstructed as
of the park looks natural, it is in factthe  natural-seeming  Harlem  Meer.
almost entirely landscaped and contains
several artificial lakes, extensive walkingBetween 1860 and 1873, the construction of
tracks, two ice-skating rinks, a wildlifethe park had come a long way, and most of the
sanctuary, and grassy areas used for variousmajor hurdles had been overcome. During this
sporting pursuits, as well as playgrounds forperiod, more than 500,000 cubic feet (14,000
children. The park is a popular oasis form³) of topsoil had been transported in
migrating birds, and thus is popular withfrom New Jersey, as the original soil wasn't
bird watchers. The 6-mile (10 km) roadgood enough to sustain the various trees,
circling the park is popular with joggers,shrubs and the plants the Greensward Plan
bicyclists and inline skaters, especially oncalled for. When the park was officially
weekends and in the evenings after 7:00 p.m.,completed in 1873, more than ten million
when  automobile  traffic  is  banned.cartloads of material, including soil and
rocks which were to be removed from the area
Historyhad been manually dug up, and transported out
of the park. Also included were the more than
The park was not part of the Commissioners'four million trees, shrubs and plants
Plan of 1811; however, between 1821 and 1855,representing the approximately 1,500 species
New York City nearly quadrupled inwhich were to lay the foundation for today's
population. As the city expanded, people werepark.
drawn to the few open spaces, mainly
cemeteries, to get away from the noise and20th  Century
chaotic life in the city. Before long,
however, New York City's need for a greatFollowing the completion of the park, it
public park was voiced by the poet and editorquickly slipped into decline. One of the
of the then-Evening Post (now the New Yorkmajor reasons for this was the disinterest of
Post), William Cullen Bryant, and by theTammany Hall, the political machine which was
first American landscape architect, Andrewthe largest political force in New York at
Jackson Downing, who began to publicize thethe  time.
city's need for a public park in 1844. A
stylish place for open-air driving, like theAround the turn of the century, the park
Bois de Boulogne in Paris or London's Hydefaced several new challenges. Cars had been
Park, was felt to be needed by manyinvented and were becoming commonplace,
influential New Yorkers, and in 1853 the Newbringing with them their burden of pollution.
York legislature designated a 700 acre (2.8Also, the general mental view of the people
km²) area from 59th to 106th Streets forwas beginning to change. No longer were parks
the creation of the park, to a cost of moreto be used only for walks and picnics in an
than  US$5  million  for  the  land  alone.idyllic environment, but now also for sports,
and similar recreation. Following the
Initial  developmentdissolution of the Central Park Commission in
1870 and Andrew Green's departure from the
The State appointed a Central Park Commissionproject and the death of Vaux in 1895, the
to oversee the development of the park, andmaintenance effort gradually declined, and
in 1857 the commission held a landscapethere were few or no attempts to replace dead
design contest. Writer Frederick Law Olmstedtrees, bushes and plants or worn-out lawn.
and English architect Calvert Vaux developedFor several decades, authorities did little
the so-called "Greensward Plan", which wasor nothing to prevent vandalism and the
selected as the winning design. According tolittering  of  the  park.
Olmsted, the park was "of great importance as
the first real Park made in thisAll of this changed in 1934, when Fiorello
century—a democratic development ofLaGuardia was elected mayor of New York City
the highest significance…", a viewand unified the five park-related departments
probably inspired by his stay, and variousthen in existence, and gave Robert Moses the
trips in Europe in 1850.[2] During that tripjob of cleaning up. Moses, then about to
he visited several parks, and was inbecome one of the mightiest men in New York
particular impressed by Birkenhead Park nearCity, took over what was essentially a relic,
Liverpool, England, which opened in 1847 asa  leftover  from  a  bygone  era.
the  first publicly funded park in the world.
According to historian Robert Caro in his
Several influences came together in the1974  book  The  Power  Broker,
design. Landscaped cemeteries, such as Mount
Auburn (Cambridge, Massachusetts) andLawns, unseeded, were expanses of bare earth,
Green-Wood (Brooklyn, New York) had set andecorated with scraggly patches of grass and
example of idyllic, naturalistic landscapes.weeds, that became dust holes in dry weather
The most influential innovations in theand mud holes in wet…. The once
Central Park design, were the "separatebeautiful Mall looked like a scene of a wild
circulation systems" for pedestrians,party the morning after. Benches lay on their
horseback riders, and pleasure vehicles. Thebacks,  their legs jabbing at the sky….
"crosstown" commercial traffic was entirely
concealed in sunken roadways screened withIn a single year, Moses managed to clean up
densely planted shrub belts, so as not tonot only Central Park, but also other parks
disturb the impression of a rustic scene. Thein New York City; lawns and flowers were
Greensward plan called for some 36 bridges,replanted, dead trees and bushes replaced,
all designed by Vaux, ranging from ruggedwalls were sandblasted and bridges repaired.
spans of Manhattan schist or granite, to lacyMajor redesigning and construction was also
neo-gothic cast iron, no two alike. Thecarried out; for instance, the existing
ensemble of the formal line of the Mall'sCroton Lower Reservoir was filled-in so the
doubled allées of elms culminating atGreat Lawn could be created. The Greensward
Bethesda Terrace, with a composed view beyondPlan's intention of creating an idyllic
of lake and woodland was at the heart of thelandscape was combined with Moses' vision of
larger  design.a park to be used for recreational
purposes—nineteen playgrounds, twelve
Before the construction of the park couldballfields, and handball courts were
start, the area had to be cleared of itsconstructed. Moses also managed to secure
inhabitants, most of whom were quite poor andfunds from the New Deal program, as well as
either free African-Americans or immigrantsdonations from the public, thus ensuring that
of either German or Irish origin. Most ofthe park got a new lease of life, prospering
them lived in smaller villages, such asunder the wings of a powerful and new
Seneca Village, Harsenville, the Piggerydefender.
District or the Convent of the Sisters of



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