Central Park

What's a Trippy?

It's a short visual trip to a place of architectural or design importance.

Where are we going?

Central Park in New York City -- the island of Manhattan, to be more precise. It's significant to visit because it was the first landscaped public park in the United States, a project that started in 1853 when the New York legislature set aside 843 acres of land -- 6% of Manhattan -- to give residents a well-groomed and thoughtfully planned park experience similar to London and other cosmopolitan cities. It was originally designed to offer a great place for families to take walks and carriage rides. An 1857 contest by the Central Park Commission became the first-ever U.S. landscape design competition, and it was won by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. The park opened in 1859 and has been a great success ever since.

What's to see?

The park is a masterful mixture of beautiful trees, shrubs, and flower plantings, statues, ornate bridgework, formal mall settings and more natural paths, manmade lakes that replaced swampland, and an amazing variety of events, like boating, sports venues, concerts, art happenings, restaurants, and the famous Central Park Zoo.