Central Park

Spanning 843 acres between 59th and 110th Streets in Manhattan, Central Park is one of the most visited urban parks in the world, drawing over 42 million visitors annually. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and completed in the 1870s, the park was an entirely engineered landscape — its lakes, meadows, rocky outcroppings, and wooded dells built from scratch over a decade. Visitors exploring the park on foot encounter a sequence of distinctive landscapes: the tree-lined Mall with its bronze literary statues leading to the grand Bethesda Fountain and Terrace on the Lake; the intimate Conservatory Garden at the Fifth Avenue entrance near 105th Street; the Ramble, a 36-acre woodland where over 200 bird species have been recorded during migration; and the Great Lawn, a vast oval where the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic stage free summer concerts. The Central Park Zoo, near the Fifth Avenue and 64th Street entrance, houses penguins, snow leopards, and red pandas in a compact family-friendly setting. Rowboats can be rented at the Loeb Boathouse on the Lake, and cyclists can loop the park on the 6-mile interior ring road, which closes to cars on weekends. The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in the northern half is a popular jogging circuit with views of the Upper East Side skyline. Autumn transforms the park's canopy from green to gold and red, making October the most visually spectacular month. Bethesda Fountain, Bow Bridge, and the Belvedere Castle are the park's most-photographed spots.