When she's in New York City, Girlawhirl always makes time for an afternoon in Central Park. She loves to take it in, dog owners chatting while their dogs play, kids in the playground, the zoo, the reservoir, and just the juxtaposition of city chic New Yorkers hustling up and down the winding paths of the park. And in New York's crush-of-the-crowd sensibility, Girlawhirl wondered just how big the park really is, and how it came to be…
To answer her first question about the size of Central Park, Girlawhirl could walk all around it: up Fifth Avenue on the East Side from 59th Street to 110th and then west on 110th to Central Park West where she'd walk down the west side back to 59th street. If she completed the rectangle and headed back to her starting point at 59th and 5th, she would have logged six miles! In total the park covers 843 acres that are a mix of woodlands, lawns and water. With 58 miles of paths for walking, 4 ½ miles of riding trails, 21 playgrounds, and 51 sculptures there's always something for Girlawhirl to see on a stroll through the park.
In 1857, the City of New York held a contest to determine a design for the plot of land that had been purchased between 1853 and1856 and was in the process of being cleared. At that time, New York City, which was growing by leaps and bounds, was still only settled up through 38th Street. There were 33 entries in the contest and all were kept anonymous so the judges had no idea whose entry they were looking at. As it turned out, they chose the Greensward Plan that was submitted by Frederick Law Olmsted, who happened to be the superintendent of the yet-to-be-developed park, and Calvert Vaux, who was a business partner of Andrew Jackson Downing, the first landscape architect in the US and one of the public figures who had pushed city planners to incorporate a park into New York. It's been said that one of the reasons the Greensward Plan was chosen was that it allowed for multi-level roads and pathways, with pedestrian – and bridle – paths often being raised or lowered, and sunken transverse roadways, which resulted not just in 36 bridges and arches throughout the park, but also a sense of tranquility because the people are separated from the bustling city traffic.
Today the park, which is a landmark, is visited by more than 25 million people a year, and New Yorkers have the pleasure of enjoying it, like a giant back or front yard, every day of the year.
