Central Park

Nearest subway

5 Av/59 St NRW · 5 min walk to the start

The 32 stops

The full stories, photos and directions for every stop are in the app.

1. 
   1Central Park Zoo

   Start where the park’s animals have lived since the 1860s, when people began leaving gifts like bears, swans and a few goats at the Arsenal next door.

2. 
   2Tisch Children’s Zoo

   A short walk north is the Tisch Children’s Zoo, where kids can meet goats, sheep, alpacas and other gentle farm animals up close.

3. 
   3Balto Statue

   In the winter of 1925, a diphtheria outbreak hit the town of Nome, Alaska, and the only medicine was nearly 700 miles away.

4. 
   4Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument

   For 167 years, every statue of a woman in Central Park was fictional: Alice in Wonderland, Mother Goose, Juliet.

5. 
   5The Mall

   The Mall is the only straight line in a park designed to curve.

6. 
   6Bethesda Terrace and Fountain

   At the end of the Mall, stairs lead down through an arcade to the park’s great meeting place.

7. 
   7The Lake (and Row Boat Rental)

   The Lake is the largest body of water in the southern half of the park, and it was dug by hand on what was once a swamp.

8. 
   8The Central Park Boathouse

   The Boathouse has stood on the eastern shore of the Lake since 1954, named after banker Carl Loeb, who paid for it.

9. 
   9Pilgrim Hill

   The bronze statue on top of this hill shows a Pilgrim with a musket, put up in 1885 to honor the settlers who landed at Plymouth Rock.

10. 
    10Conservatory Water (Central Park Model Boat Sailing)

    This pond was supposed to be the base of a grand glass conservatory, which was never built, so the park gave the water to the model boats instead.

11. 
    11Hans Christian Andersen Monument

    Hans Christian Andersen sits on a bronze bench with his book open, as if he is about to read to the duck at his feet, the hero of The Ugly Duckling.

12. 
    12Alice in Wonderland

    This is the one statue in the park where climbing is not just allowed but expected.

13. 
    13King Wladyslaw Jagiello

    This Polish king on horseback has a surprising story.

14. 
    14The Obelisk (Cleopatra’s Needle)

    Cleopatra’s Needle has nothing to do with Cleopatra.

15. 
    15Alexander Hamilton Monument

    Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, stands here carved in granite, gift of his son.

16. 
    16Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir

    Joggers pound the 1.58-mile track around this reservoir, which once held about a billion gallons of drinking water for the city.

17. 
    17Arthur Ross Pinetum

    Step off the paved paths into the Arthur Ross Pinetum, a quiet grove of pine trees from around the world.

18. 
    18Delacorte Theater

    Every summer, New Yorkers line up for hours for free Shakespeare.

19. 
    19Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre

    This wooden schoolhouse was built in Sweden and shipped to Philadelphia as Sweden’s pavilion at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition.

20. 
    20Shakespeare Garden

    Every flower in this garden is supposed to appear somewhere in Shakespeare’s plays and poems.

21. 
    21Belvedere Castle

    Belvedere means “beautiful view” in Italian, and that is all this little castle was built for.

22. 
    22Bow Bridge

    This is perhaps the most photographed bridge in New York.

23. 
    23Cherry Hill

    The fountain on Cherry Hill wasn’t built for people.

24. 
    24Strawberry Fields

    Across the street stands the Dakota, the apartment building where John Lennon lived.

25. 
    25Le Pain Quotidien

    Le Pain Quotidien started as a single bakery in Brussels in 1990, and this café in the park keeps the same idea: freshly baked bread, tartines, salads and good coffee at long communal tables.

26. 
    26Sheep Meadow

    Until 1934, this meadow really did have sheep, a flock of about 200 that was walked across the road twice a day from their fold at Tavern on the Green.

27. 
    27Tavern on the Green

    Before it was a restaurant, this was a barn.

28. 
    28Central Park Carousel

    The first carousel here, in 1871, was powered by a horse or mule walking in circles in the basement.

29. 
    29The Dairy Visitor Center and Gift Shop

    In the 1870s, New York’s milk was often dirty or watered down, and children got sick from it.

30. 
    30Chess & Checkers House

    In 1952, financier Bernard Baruch gave the city this red-brick house and its outdoor game tables, where you can still play chess and checkers on a summer afternoon.

31. 
    31Wollman Rink 🎟

    Wollman Rink opened in 1949, and in winter it is one of the most famous places in the world to ice skate, with the towers of Central Park South rising over the trees.

32. 
    32Gapstow Bridge

    End your walk on Gapstow Bridge, the small stone bridge over the Pond.