Central Park looks natural, but it's actually one of the most carefully engineered landscapes in the world. Nothing you see is accidental - every hill, every pond, every scenic vista was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in the 1850s.
Before the park, this area was home to about 1,600 poor residents, including the community of Seneca Village - one of New York's most significant free Black settlements. They were all evicted through eminent domain. History is not always cute.
The construction involved moving more than 10 million cartloads of dirt and stone - more earth than was moved to dig the Panama Canal. They planted over 270,000 trees and shrubs, built 36 bridges (each one different), and created several entirely artificial lakes.
The park even has its own police precinct, the Central Park Precinct, because a place this big needs its own cops. At 843 acres, it's larger than the entire country of Monaco.
