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Central park was designed by
Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert
Vaux in 1858. They envisioned the
park as a place where people of
all social and ethnic backgrounds
could have fun and do their
activities . The place was a
treeless , rocky one and stagnant
swampland. However Olmstead and
Vaux transformed it into a urban
oasis .During the 19th century
approximately 60000 people were
living in New York city. In the
1830's a tremendous number of
immigrants came in to the city
increasing the number of people to
30000 by1840 and in 1850' it
increased to 500000.Many people
were looking for a place to relax
and escape the press of bodies and
the din of the city.
In 1857 the city commissioners
sponsored a public competition to
design the central park . The
"greensward plan " by Frederick
Law Olmsted , who became the
superintendent of the park ,and
Calvert Vaux (partner of Andrew
Jackson Downing). The plan
exhibited both sweeping meadows
and lakes of the pastoral
landscape and the rocky
irregularity of the land. Olmsted
knew about the conditions of the
terrain and based his design
because of this , for example that
the southern part was mostly a
rolling section could be the
tranquil , serene section. The
rocky an wooded western and
northern inspired him too.
The city commissioners paid more
than $5 million for the
undeveloped land from 59th street
to 106th street, between Fifth and
Eighth avenues. Central park soil
was inadequate to sustain the
trees and shrubs that the plan
included so 500000cubic feet of
top soil was carted in from new
jersey. The land was manually dug
up and huge boulders blasted out.
All materials were carried in and
out on horse-drawn carts. By 1873
more than 10 million cartloads of
material had been hauled through
the park. This material included
more than 4 million trees ,shrubs,
and plants representing more than
1400 species. The thirty -six
bridges and archways that are in
central park were built and four
man-made water bodies, fed from
the city's water supply, were
created.
It took twenty years after the
approval of the Greensward Plan
for Central Park to be completed.
Olmsted and Vaux officially
resigned many times mostly because
of political battles. A good part
of the problems stemmed from
Tammany Hall, the democrat machine
that dominated New York politics
from1850 until 1933.In 1877
Olmsted finally decided to leave
the park , however Vaux stayed
until his death in 1895. Later on
more pressure was on the Park
because of the public demand for
recreational space and the advent
of automobiles. For decades after
the death of Vaux there were only
intermittent efforts to improve
the lawns , replace dead trees and
shrubs , or to end the littering
and vandalism.
In 1934 Robert Moses was chose
to continue the plan. He had built
Long Island's first parkways and
created Jones Beach. He cleaned up
Central park and other New York
parks. Many flowers bloomed where
there had been bare dirt, the park
wall was sandblasted to its
original dark cream color. Under
Moses, Central Park gained 19 play
grounds ,12 ball fields, hand ball
courts and the Wollman Rink. Moses
also raised money from wealthy
people to create popular sites as
the Hans Christian Andersen and
Alice in Wonderland sculptures,
the Chess and Checkers House, and
the Carousel. A renovated Central
park Zoo and Tavern .
Once again in the 1960's it was
a period of decline for Central
Park because of peace rallies ,
protest marches ,summer concerts
and New Year's Eve. However there
were some positive changes because
" The Public Theatre's Shakespeare
in the park " debuted. And in 1964
Central park was declared a
National historic landmark and in
1974 it was named a New York City
Landmark. The park today has more
than 26000 trees ,58 miles of
scenic pathways and nearly 9000
benches on 843 acres. More than 25
million people visit Central Park
from all over the world.
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