New York Citys Central Park is a vibrant, colorful attraction for tourists and locals alike. The park occupies over 840 acres in Manhattan and receives over 25 million visitors annually. It is bordered to the north by West 110th Street, to the west by Central Park West, to the south by West 59th Street, and to the east by the famous 5th Avenue. Though it appears natural, Central Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, is entirely landscaped with artificial lakes, a zoo, playgrounds, walking trails, and ice skating rinks.
In the mid-nineteenth century, New York City was growing at an unprecedented rate. Public open spaces, aside from cemeteries, were few and far between. Poet William Cullen Bryant, among others, began to voice a need for a larger, sanctioned public park. In 1953, New York Legislature designated over 700 acres of land to be used for a park, for a cost of about 5 million dollars. A design contest was held, and Olmstead and Vauxs Greensward Plan was chosen. However, after the parks construction, public interest waivered and the park declined quickly after it was built; the political powers in New York City at the time were not interested...