The most visited city park in all of the United States, Central Park has become something of a novelty. Bordered by West 110th Ave., West 59th Street, and Fifth Avenue, Central Park welcomes around 25 million visitors a year. Most of the park is entirely landscaped including a few artificial lakes, numerous walking paths, playgrounds, two ice skating rinks and a wildlife sanctuary.

With a tremendous rise in population in the mid 1800s, New York City became increasingly crowded and loud. The New York people were running out of places to just “get away”. The people were finally given a voice with the poet, Andrew Jackson Downing, who proposed the New York legislature set aside 700 acres for a park. The Central Park Commission decided on a design called the “Greensward Plan”, which was proposed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.

Before breaking ground on Central Park, the issue of where to move the 1600 inhabitants of that land, needed to be addressed. Most were very poor and immigrants. Using eminent domain as their tool, the city evicted the residents, and torn down most of Seneca Village. Once construction got under way, more than 500,000 cubic feet of top soil had to be transported from New Jersey because the original soil wasn’t good enough to sustain new growth. The park has gone through a few changes throughout its lifespan, but for the most part, has become a landmark in itself. To hear more about Central Park, download Tourcaster’s audio tour of Fifth Avenue and Central Park. You can listen to more of the historical and cultural importance of this landmark in New York City on your iPod or mp3 player. Just visit the Tourcaster website.