Central Park-Metropolitan Wonderland

Central Park occupies 6% of Manhattan's total acreage, and is located between Fifth and Eighth Avenue and 59th and 110th Street. In 1853 when the City of New York bought the 843 acres that would become Central Park, it was a far away place between New York City and Harlem. Converting the swamp land into the park took more than fifteen years, 20,000 workers, and three million cubic yards of dirt.

Light and Dark
In February 2005, Christo and Jeanne-Claude erected 7,500 free hanging saffron colored fabric panels on twenty-three miles of walkway in New York City’s Central Park. They were called the Gates of Central Park and were in place for 16 days, attracting millions of visitors. When the Gates were removed, all the materials were recycled—5,390 tons of steel, 315,491 feet of vinyl tubing, 99,155 square meters of fabric, and 15,000 sets of brackets and hardware.

The artists first proposed the idea for the Gates of Central Park in 1979, but it was not embraced by the city until 2004 when Mayor Bloomberg got behind the idea. The event drew thousands of foreign tourists and pumped an estimated $254 million into New York City’s economy.

The project was paid for by the artists completely on their own, using no public or corporate money. Although unsubstantiated, Christo and Jeanne-Claude publicly said the Gates of Central Park cost $21 million.

Jeanne-Claude died at age 74 from a brain aneurysm November 18, 2009.
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Tunnel Cover—NYC Central Park First Place 2008
The average annual snowfall in New York City is 28 inches. Almost that much snow fell on one weekend in February, 2006. On February 11th and 12th of 2006, a total of 26.9 inches of snow fell on Central Park. It was the largest snowfall recorded since record keeping began in 1869.

To speed removal of snow throughout the city, diesel powered snow melting machines were used, each of which melted sixty tons of snow per hour. The resulting water went directly into the sewer system.

By Wednesday of that week, Central Park recorded a high temperature of 52 degrees.
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Strawberry Fields
Strawberry Fields in Central Park was named in 1981 by a New York City Council law introduced by Council member Henry J. Stern and signed by Mayor Edward I. Koch. The black and white mosaic, just inside Central Park at 72nd Street, was fashioned by Italian craftsmen and given as a gift from Naples, Italy. A nearby bronze plaque lists the 121 countries that endorsed Strawberry Fields as a Garden of Peace. Rarely a day goes by without a remembrance appearing on the mosaic.

The 2.5 acre memorial is a tribute to Beatle John Lennon who lived across the street in the co-op known as the Dakota. On the evening of December 8, 1980, Lennon and wife Yoko Ono were returning home. As they walked toward the archway entrance to the building, Mark David Chapman fired five hollow-point bullets from a .38 special revolver, four of which hit Lennon in the back.
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Behind the Fence—The Sheep Meadow
Thousands sunbath where sheep once grazed. In 1934, Robert Moses had the sheep removed from Sheep Meadow, under the guise of health reasons. This ended the presence of sheep in Central Park after 60 years. The sheep and a shepherd were housed in a fanciful Victorian building - part of what once was the Tavern on the Green restaurant—on the western perimeter of the Park. Twice a day the shepherd stopped traffic on the west drive so that the flock could travel to and from their meadow.
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Frozen Willow
To the left of the tree is the San Remo luxury co-op, one of the most prestigious addresses in Manhattan. The San Remo began Construction in 1929, weeks before the Wall Street market crash. When the building was completed the city and the country were rapidly slipping into the Great Depression. In 1940, the San Remo together with another building were sold, for $25,000 total to cover the existing mortgages.

Residents have included Steven Spielberg, Steve Jobs, Demi Moore, Glenn Close, Dustin Hoffman, Bono, Steve Martin, Bruce Willis, and Eddie Cantor. Rita Hayworth spent her last years in the San Remo.
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Fetch
Cleopatra's Needle is reflected in the hugh glass wall that is the Central Park side of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. .

In 1880, the Metropolitan Museum moved to its current site in Central Park. The original Gothic-Revival-style building has been greatly expanded in size since then, and the various additions (built as early as 1888) now completely surround the original structure. The present facade and entrance structure along Fifth Avenue were completed in 1926.
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Whiteout
A lone figure, fading into the background, trudges through blinding snow in New York City's Central Park during one of the heaviest snowfalls on record.
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Wilderness Party
New York City spent 107 million dollars in 2018 for snow removal. That was 23 million dollars more than budgeted. The original 84 million dollar budget was busted after the city snow fall totals kept climbing, finally reaching 40 inches.

The record set in 2014 was $130 million dollars when nearly 60 inches of snow fell. Snow funding level is set by averaging the amounts spent on snow removal over the previous five years as outlined in the City Charter.
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Central Park Yacht Club
It was here Stewart Little piloted his brother George's boat the "Wasp" to victory in the Central Park Boat Race. The Model Yacht Club actually holds racing regatta's between members at the site of the Conservatory Water.

Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, builders of Central Park, planned a huge conservatory on the East side of the park. However during original park construction, city budget cuts forced rethinking the original plans. Instead, they created a shallow pond inspired by the model boat ponds of Paris, France.
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Black Umbrella
A winter nor' easter creates a wonderland of undisturbed snow for two lovers to stroll quietly among the trees.
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Ice Cream
So great is the demand for pretzels and sodas, a company bid a total of $536,100 in a New York City Parks Department auction for the right to have a pushcart for a year at two choice spots in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Within Central Park, a pushcart can sell $4,000 a day in food and drink. Some carts gross more than $400,00 a year.
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Angle in the Snow
The New York City Central Park fountain, designed by Emma Stebbins, was unveiled in 1873 and is the only sculpture commissioned as part of the original design of Central Park. Ms. Stebbins was the first woman to receive a commission for a major work of art in New York City.

The winged female figure symbolizes the purity of the city water supply when the Croton Aqueduct opened in 1842 bringing fresh water to all New Yorkers. In her hand she holds a lily, the symbol of purity, and extends her other hand outward to bless the water below.
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