Size and Form.

The Central Park is about two miles and a half long, and half a mile wide, bounded on the sides by straight parallel “avenues,” and at the ends by[205] streets crossing these at right angles. It is now enclosed by a rough, dry stone wall, four and a half feet high, in which there are gates at convenient intervals. There are also several stiles for the admission of visitors on foot. The area enclosed is about seven hundred and sixty-eight acres, of which one hundred and thirty-six acres are occupied by the Reservoirs of the Croton Aqueduct, whence the city is supplied with water.

The Reservoirs.

The old Reservoir covers thirty acres, and stands upon high ground in the centre of the Park. The embankment is faced exteriorly with dressed stone, and surmounted by a white wooden paling, forming a conspicuous object in the view from nearly all points in the southern half of the Park. The new Reservoir (the construction of which was commenced in April 1858) is irregular in outline, and, when completed, will cover one hundred and six acres. The Reservoirs are not under the control of the Park Commission, and are too much elevated for the water within them to form a part of its landscapes.

Divisions of the Park

The Park is practically divided by the Reservoirs into two portions, the northern or upper park, containing 160 acres, the lower park containing 331 acres, and the connecting ground lying on both sides of the Reservoirs, 135 acres. It will be further subdivided by four thoroughfares, one crossing it between the Reservoirs, one at each end of them, and the remaining one near the middle of the lower park. These thoroughfares are to be so constructed, by means of tunnels and other contrivances, as not to interrupt the landscape, or practically effect any division of the Park. They will only be noticeable at their extremities, where they unite with the exterior streets at a higher grade than the surface of the Park, appearing as causeways, a few hundred feet in length, terminating upon a hill-side. The Park not being directly accessible from these cross-streets, it will be unnecessary to close them at night, when the public are shut out from the Park itself. They will furnish the means of direct transit across the Park for business purposes, without causing inconvenience to its visitors.

Topography of the Site—The Lower Park.

When purchased by the city, the southern portion of the site was already a part of its straggling suburbs, and a suburb more filthy, squalid and disgusting can hardly be imagined. A considerable number of its inhabitants were engaged in occupations which are nuisances in the eye of the law, and forbidden to be carried on so near the city. They were accordingly followed at night in wretched hovels, half hidden among the rocks, where also heaps of cinders, brick-bats, [206]

Map of Central Park Showing Construction Completed As of January 1, 1862

[212]

Even after the removal of the buildings of all kinds, and the drainage of the pools, the lower park still presented a most confused and unsightly appearance. Before it had been taken for the Park, the grading of streets through and across it had been commenced, and the rude embankments and ragged rock-excavations thus created, added much to the natural irregularities of its surface. A swampy valley (which will hereafter be referred to as the “southern valley”) extended from the corner of Sixty-fourth street and Eighth avenue to the corner of Fifty-ninth street and Fifth avenue. A similar valley (the “central valley”) extended from the junction of Seventy-seventh street and Eighth avenue to that of Seventy-fourth street and Fifth avenue. Between Sixty-seventh and Seventy-second streets, and adjoining Fifth avenue, was a tract (the “eastern plateau”) of ten acres, moderately smooth, and used as a pasture and market garden. A similar tract (the “central plateau”) of nearly equal dimensions, lay midway between the last mentioned one and the west side of the Park. Both tracts were rocky, and a portion of the smaller was a bog.

The remainder of the lower park was made up of low hills and hillocks, [with] the rock of which they were chiefly composed everywhere cropping out, sometimes boldly, sometimes in large, smooth, flattish masses, washed bare of soil. With the exception of portions of the two swampy valleys and the two ten-acre tracts above mentioned, and about three acres on Sixty-sixth street near Sixth avenue, there was not an acre in which the great underlying ledge of gneiss rock did not thrust itself above the surface. Probably not a square rood could be found throughout which a crow-bar could be thrust its length into the ground without encountering rock. Often in places where no rock was visible, it has been found, in the progress of the work, to be within from three inches to two feet of the surface, for long distances together.

Motive of the plan.

The primary purpose of the Park is to provide the best practicable means of healthful recreation for the inhabitants of the city, of all classes. It should present an aspect of spaciousness and tranquility with variety and intricacy of arrangement, thereby affording the most agreeable contrast to the confinement,[213] bustle, and monotonous street-division of the city. The Park should, that is to say, as far as practicable, resemble a charming bit of rural landscape, such as, unless produced by art, is never found within the limits of a large town; always remembering, however, that facilities and inducements for recreation and exercise are to be provided for a concourse of people, and that the object of the scenery to be created is only to further the attainment of this end in the most complete and satisfactory manner. No kind of sport can be permitted which would be inconsistent with the general method of amusement, and no species of exercise which must be enjoyed only by a single class in the community to the diminution of the enjoyment of others. Sports, games and parades, in which comparatively few can take part, will only be admissible in cases where they may be supposed to contribute indirectly to the pleasure of a majority of those visiting the Park. The Park is intended to furnish healthful recreation for the poor and the rich, the young and the old, the vicious and the virtuous, so far as each can partake therein without infringing upon the rights of others, and no further.

The casual observer will be apt to think the selection of the site an unfortunate one. At present, in the lower Park especially, except in those places where the work of improvement is already well advanced, its aspect is one of mere undignified ruggedness. But this is due almost entirely to the absence of soil and foliage. When these are supplied, as they will be in a few years, that peculiar picturesqueness of effect, which can only be obtained in a high degree where rocky masses exist as a basis of operations, will become strikingly obvious. Grass and shrubbery can be formed anywhere, but great rocks, and those salient forms of earth-surface which are only found in nature where rock exists, can never be imitated on a large scale with perfect success. Although, therefore, it will require a heavy expenditure to make the Park complete, the final artistic effect will be much finer than could possibly be obtained upon a tract of the richest and most easily worked soil, the natural outlines of which were tame and prosaic.

If the soil which has been removed from the site of the lower park could be replaced and the primeval forest restored, however, [with] only such walks and drives being constructed through it as would make all parts readily accessible, the general effect would still be unsatisfactory, from the want of breadth and expanse in the landscapes. It would be—so to speak—monotonous in its irregularity, the eye soon wearying of the ceaseless repetition of rocks and hillocks with meagre depressions of surface between them. To remedy this natural defect, three considerable pieces of ground have been selected, to be cleared of all obstructions and brought to comparatively level surfaces.

Treatment of the central Plateau.

One of these, near the centre of the lower park, includes the central plateau of ten acres heretofore described as somewhat boggy and rocky, with nearly twenty acres more lying to the westward and southward. The boggy [214] portion has been filled in to an average depth of two feet, and all rocks protruding have been removed by blasting; some large ledges of rock adjoining have been reduced, and the intervening depressions filled in a similar manner, so that when the whole shall have been covered with two feet of soil, there will be about thirty acres of level or but slightly undulating ground. When finished, this will form a stretch of turf about a quarter of a mile across, unbroken by a single road or foot-path [D]. It may be used upon special occasions, for military displays. Ordinarily it will be like a great country green or open common—a place where children may run about and play until they are tired, in nobody’s way, and without danger of being run over, or injured if they fall. A rocky ridge bounds this green on the northeast, which has been reduced by blasting sixteen feet, throwing open from opposite points the two finest views on the park. The rock and earth removed from the ridge, together with that taken from a low hill a quarter of a mile to the southward, have been used to fill a swamp lying east of the green, and this being further covered with made-soil to the depth of four feet, an additional level space has been obtained, about eighty rods in length and twelve rods in breadth, only separated from the green by a slight depression of the surface, through which passes a carriage road. This spot is to be planted with four rows of American elms, forming a broad mall [I], with a fountain at either end, seats for visitors and accommodations for an orchestra [M]. At its southern extremity, gentle slopes of turf, little broken by rocks or trees, will conduct to a lawn-like surface, formed upon the smooth ground near Fifth avenue, before described, as the eastern plateau. Views of an open and pastoral character are thus obtained for a quarter of a mile in either direction, terminating in a forest obscurity, and the general ruggedness of the Park is, for a space, entirely obliterated.

Treatment of the Southern Valley.

All rocks of insignificant size, and such as were calculated to give an appearance of disagreeable barrenness, have been removed from the greater portion of the southern valley. Some low parts have been filled up, and a level surface fourteen acres in extent thus obtained, upon which no trees will be planted, it being intended more especially as a play-ground for match games at cricket and base-ball. Some fine rocks overhang the lower and narrower end of the valley, which will be occupied by a small pond [A], rendered necessary at this point by other than picturesque considerations.

Treatment of the Central Valley.

The western part of the central valley has been made more spacious by the removal of the smaller rocks, and the earth surrounding the larger, so as to[215] form a shallow basin of irregular outline. This basin will be almost entirely occupied by a pond nearly twenty acres in extent [B], the view across which, from the most favorable point, will be of considerable breadth, and entirely unbroken for upwards of a quarter of a mile. The excavation of this pond is not yet completed. During the past winter it was filled with water and used as a skating pond, for which purpose it will be especially prepared, a small portion at the upper end being separately dammed, [so] that water may be kept in it twelve feet higher than the intended winter level of the remainder of the pond, to be used for flooding the ice when rendered unsuitable for skating by snow, or other causes.

The Ramble, the Water-Terrace, and the Bell-Tower.

To the North and East of the pond is a broad hill-side, broken by ledges of rock and bestrewn with boulders [E]. It furnishes an interesting picture viewed from almost any point, but particularly so from the end of the promenade, on the descent from which to the pond an ornamental stone terrace will be constructed. At the highest and most remote part of the hill as seen from this terrace, a small tower will be erected, and this will be the vista-point of the avenue of the mall. Looking northward from the terrace it will be the only artificial structure in sight (the Reservoir being “planted out” and the rising ground on the right and left shutting out the city). The whole breadth of the Park will be brought into this landscape, the foreground of which will be enriched with architectural decorations and a fountain, the middle-distance, composed of rocks with evergreens and dark shrubs interspersed among them, reflected in the pond; and the distance extended into intricate obscurity by carefully planting shrubs of lighter and more indistinct foliage among and above the gray rocks of the back ground. This hill-side, being isolated in position, is crossed by no road, but [is] entirely laid out with secluded walks bordered by shrubbery, and the work upon it is so far advanced, that it is believed the public may visit it with pleasure during the approaching season. The bell-tower at the summit offers the best position from which to obtain a bird’s-eye view of the whole Park, and of the work going on within it. It is a temporary structure, used to transmit orders to the officers of the work, by signal, and is open to visitors during the day.

The principal landscape features of the lower Park, so far as they are matters of immediate construction, have thus been indicated.

Plan of the Roads and Walks.

The Park will be chiefly valuable as furnishing a place for agreeable exercise (or, as the phrase is, “taking the air”) as a relief from the confinement of houses and streets. This will be obtained by the mass of the community, by[216] riding, driving, or walking, as best suits the inclination or means of each individual.

In order to secure the highest enjoyment of either of these modes of exercise, each needs to be pursued in a great degree separately from the others. A carriage coming directly upon the course of a pedestrian or of a man on horseback is an annoyance, if not positively dangerous. A horseman riding close upon a man on foot, on the same path, will unpleasantly disturb him, even without coming in direct contact. The mere consciousness that one’s path may be crossed by a horse or carriage, causes a feeling of anxiety. The sunken and tunnelled street-thoroughfares across the Park were planned to remove what would have otherwise been a ceaseless annoyance. Extending the application of the same expedient, several miles of broad gravelled walks have been laid out, carried by arched passages under the drives when necessary, by means of which all parts of the lower Park may be traversed on foot without encountering a single carriage or horseman. The rides are everywhere in like manner made independent of the drives, but horsemen can enter the carriage-roads if they choose. Foot-paths also generally accompany the drives, on one or both sides, within conversing distance.

The principal roads, as will be seen on the map, are carried near the exterior, yet at such a distance that the boundary may easily be obscured from them.

Treatment of the Reservoir Slopes.

The treatment of the ground immediately adjoining the reservoirs remains somewhat undetermined, owing to a want of harmony of action between the Croton Aqueduct Board and the Central Park Commissioners.

Treatment of the Upper Park.

The natural surface of the upper park is much more homogeneous than that of the lower. The plan is of corresponding simplicity. Near the base of the rocky ridge upon which the northern embankment of the new reservoir abuts, a transverse road will cross the park on a similar plan with those below. North of this, extending to One Hundred and Third street, and midway between the east and west boundaries of the park, two connected plateaus of turf, amounting to about eighteen acres, will be formed [F & G], that being all the space which the rocky ledges leave available. The roads and walks will pass along the more uneven ground to the east, west and north of these. The rivulet in McGowan’s pass [H] will be dammed so as to form a pool, at the west end of which the carriage-road will be carried across the valley upon a stone bridge of three arches. The mode of laying out the grounds forming the extreme northern portion of the park has not been definitely decided upon, on account of the prospect of an[217] extension of its limits in this direction and the establishment of an observatory on the bluff.

The Arboretum.

The explanation of the plan which has thus far been given, is intended to enable the public to understand more readily the value of the work which has already been done, and the nature of that for which expenditure will principally be made during the ensuing season.

It is further intended to introduce an Arboretum, in which, within a space of about forty acres, will be arranged in as natural a manner as possible, consistently with convenience for study, several specimens of every tree and shrub native to the North American continent which can be grown upon the site in the open air. The hillside and valley between the Fifth avenue and the east drive of the upper park is reserved for this purpose.

In the general planting of the park, it is hoped that every kind of tree which will flourish in the climate may be introduced.

Winter Drive.

It is intended to arrange along the west side, between Seventy-second and One Hundred and Second streets, a winter drive, about a mile and a half in length, planted somewhat thickly with evergreens; deciduous trees and shrubs being introduced only so far as is necessary to avoid a monotonous and gloomy effect. Open glades of grass will break the uniformity of these plantations of evergreens, as the effect aimed at is not so much that of a drive through a thick forest crowded with tall spindling trees, as through a richly wooded country in which single trees and copses have had plenty of space for developing their distinctive characteristics to advantage.

Planting.

The last remark applies to the general intention of planting the park, in which American trees of the stateliest character, standing somewhat openly, are designed to predominate wherever the nature of the surface will permit. The general ruggedness of the site, however, will lead to a more liberal use of evergreens, shrubbery, and especially of climbing and trailing plants than is customary in European parks.

Incidents.

Ground is reserved for a public hall, intended especially for concerts, with a large conservatory and exotic terraces; also for a geometrical flower-garden[218] with wall fountains, for an architectural terrace with a large jet and tazza fountain, for public houses of refreshment; residences of the superintendent and head gardener; a police-station, a Zoological garden and for an Astronomical Observatory.