Aerial view of Central Park
Central Park, the New York lung It is a must stop on any trip to the Big Apple. It is one of the main places of recreation for New Yorkers and is almost a city in itself. You can skate, people-watch or join one of the free walks organized by volunteers from the park's conservation body and learn more about its ecology and history. This organization has an excellent website that will allow you to check the events that will take place during your visit.
The most popular entrance is located right on Grand Army Plaza, where you should go if you want to discover the park on a horse carriage.
For the construction of the park par excellence of the city, small urban centers had to be evacuated and 14,000 tons of earth buried in a old swamp to carry out the project, which contemplated an english style garden dotted with lakes and small constructions with a romantic air.
In Central Park you will come across the Bow Bridge, perhaps the most romantic bridge in New York. Photogenic to a fault, its elegant curvature, similar to an archer's bow, gives it its name. Built in iron, it was one of the first bridges to be built in the Big Apple.
And if what you are looking for is the most beautiful corner of the city to walk, that is the Poet´s Walk . A path flanked by enormous oak trees, which in autumn carpet the ground with their leaves and in winter retain a small blanket of snow on their branches, turning the walk into a poetic experience. As a peculiarity, it was in this part where the architects of Central Park agreed to place sculptures in honor of some of the great men of letters in the history of literature, such as William Shakespeare either Sir Walter Scott.
Speaking of literature, every year the park hosts a theater festival dedicated to the Great Bard, Shakespeare in the Park, where his most significant works are performed outdoors in the summer months by great actors from Broadway and even of Hollywood.
The bronze sculpture that represents the protagonist of 'Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Carrol is, without a doubt, the children's favourite. We guarantee that it will be difficult for you to get a photograph of her without one of her little admirers swarming near her and her giant mushroom, where she drinks tea with her cat Dinah, the mad hatter, the dormouse, the March hare and the cheshire cat. What not many know is that the sculpture was made by a Spanish artist, Joseph of Creeft , who commissioned the multimillionaire George T. Delacorte made this monument in memory of the woman Daisy flower , passionate about children and Carrol's work.
Located on Vista Rock, the highest point in the park, the Belvedere Castle dominates in 360º and since 1867 the horizon of the green lung of manhattan . That is why many tourists drop by here to take their photos, and that is why for years it has been the headquarters of the New York Weather Observatory and of Henry Luce Nature Observatory , a small museum that reviews the history of the fauna and flora of the park.
Another point that you will love is the gallery of Bethesda Terrace (pictured below), which was in the plans for Central Park all along. From a place of promenade, it became a popular restaurant in the 1960s, later the New York gangs and drugs took over it, until the New York Parks Department began the restoration of the complex and returned it to its original state. ancient splendor. In the cinema and on the small screen it has appeared countless times, being the episode that takes place in it during the film starring Mel Gibson 'ramson' the most famous
The sculpture of its central fountain is called the angel of the waters and commemorates the arrival in 1842 of drinking water in New York City through an aqueduct. As a peculiarity, among all the sculptures that exist today in Central Park , this one, made in 1873 by the sculptor Emma Stebbins, is the only one that was included in the original project of the park, although later they made some concession in the Poet's Walk.
Finally, if you want to know more, keep in mind that the drivers of the horse carriages of the park are not only limited to guiding the horse, but are authentic encyclopedias of know new yorker , and for the same price of the journey, they will tell you the story of all the points you pass through on your journey.
Here is a gallery with those things you should know about Central Park.
Map: See map
Address: Central Park New York, USA See map
Schedule: Mon - Sun: 6am - 1am
Guy: Park
Official Web: Go to the web
Facebook: go to facebook