WEBVTT - How Central Park Works 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.319 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:18.040 Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bright, and Jerry Rowland over there. Uh, 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:19.880 and this is stuff you should Know. Was that a 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:24.120 real stare down? Yeah, Jerry one, Jerry one, because I 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:25.800 was like, I don't have time for this any laundery. 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.159 That's pretty funny because that's just sort of all the 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:31.360 three of us. You guys are having a stare down 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.640 over nothing. You're just over there grumpy like I was 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:36.680 just doing my thing, and then all I heard from 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.599 you was nice job, Jerry, So like you conceded, Well, 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:42.280 sure you gave it to her. I mean, Jerry one. 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:46.320 My friend, uh Billy, the one who I passed away 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.199 from MS that I talked about. He and I used 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.360 to do with staring contest. But it was a certain 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:54.520 face we had to make and you had to not laugh. 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.280 That was our staring contest. So we both make this 0:00:57.400 --> 0:00:59.720 certain face that he invented in the first one of 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.560 us to break and laugh, which was always men. Can 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:06.560 I see the face? Uh No, okay, that's fine, I've retired. 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:13.080 I understand. Um. Okay, Well, thanks for the story. Oh, 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.720 by the way, very special listener mail coming up today everyone, 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:19.920 so stick around for that. Whoa Sarah the amazing eleven 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:25.200 year old fans. Yeah, and she's reappeared, everybody. Gosh, so 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:28.240 delightful to hear from her. All right, so wow, let's 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:30.360 just get through this then, kind of in Central Park. 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:34.680 Central Park. It's huge, it's a New York year. It's square, 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:39.520 it's rectangular, Charles, all right, So let's talk about New York. 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:46.280 In between eight and eighteen fifty five, the population of 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:50.920 New York grew four times its size over that thirty 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:57.120 four year period, from people to sixty and they were 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:01.440 crowded and people started moving further and further worth like 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:03.120 like that was a funny joke I just made. But 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.680 you just said that the population of New York quadruple 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:12.000 over thirty years. Thirty four years, and you know, New 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:15.560 York started at the south as far as people living there, 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:20.079 and kept going further and further north. And Manhattan wise, sure, sure, 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:22.760 yeah about New York State. Come on, no, no, but 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:27.760 I mean there's Brooklyn too, and Poughkeepsie No, no, sure, 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.480 all the boroughs. Yeah, we're talking about the island of Manhattan. Uh, 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:36.480 and things got so crowded that people would gather in 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:41.880 cemeteries to socialize. Yeah, that was really weird. So we've 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:44.680 talked about that before. We were like, I don't remember 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:46.560 what episode it was, but we saw this stuff. It 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.560 might have been the subways or something, park or pizza. 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:53.080 It might have been tombstones or something. Because we talked 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.160 about the cemeteries being designed to be park like because 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:59.760 people would go have picnics and stuff. All the material 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:02.240 that has to do with Central Park makes it sound 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:06.160 like that's all they had available, were cemeteries if they 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:08.920 wanted to go hang out and have picnics in green space. 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:12.079 So I'm not sure if it was involuntary or if 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:15.200 it was designed that way. You're both, but they it 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:20.880 was either a tenement or a commercial district or the 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:25.200 cemetery that was what you had if you were outdoors. Yeah, 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.440 and I think I think it's not necessarily that's all 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:29.640 you had, but like maybe all you had that was 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:33.400 close and accessible, like the cemetery is, you know, six 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:39.240 blocks from my apartment. Um. And also, as you will learn, 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:44.960 much of not Northern Manhattan, but yeah, County, Northern Manhattan, 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:51.040 Central Manhattan, where Central Park now is was gross swampland 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:54.320 swampy rocky. You're not You're not hanging out there anyway. Yeah, 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.240 forget the twenties. Let's go back two point six million 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.280 years ago. Chuco. There was an ice sheet over New 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:05.280 York State um that was two miles thick, and it 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:08.360 just so happened to terminate the termination edge that that 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.320 the well, the edge of it went right through the 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:16.440 bottom of Manhattan, went through Brooklyn and actually like all 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:21.719 the heights and hills and in Brooklyn, that's because that's 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:26.720 actual hills, right, because a glacier pushed the ground up there, 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.760 because that's where it stopped growing forward. But as these 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:32.800 glaciers were moving down south from the north, they were 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.720 pushing boulders and rocks and stones everywhere and where they 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.480 ended up and then finally retreated from they left all 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.080 that stuff, which is why they're boulders in Central Park. 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.160 There used to be a lot more boulders there, so 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.360 much so that the land was just basically considered virtually unusable. 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.480 Yeah they weren't. That area was not being developed anyway, 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:55.040 which made it made it a um a difficult task, 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:56.800 but it made it sort of the only place if 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.640 you wanted to build a seven hundred plus acre park, 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:02.680 that was kind of the place to go, right, And 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:05.480 so they did want to build a park because again, 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.080 if you wanted to go outside and hang out and 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:10.560 have a picnic, you had to go to Greenwood Cemetery 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.000 in Brooklyn. That was basically it. So the people who 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:16.720 were living in New York wanted this, but then also 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:22.239 the um upper society, I guess, the super wealthy. We're like, yeah, yeah, 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:25.480 this will put our town on the map. Man, London's 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:29.120 got Hyde Park, Paris has one. All the great cities 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.520 have a great park, but there's not one in the 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:35.080 United States. Let's build it in New York. Yeah, you 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.880 know that was was later Like initially they there was 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.560 no call for a park. I mean, it took forty 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:44.839 or fifty years of lots of inhabitants to get this idea. 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:49.039 Um the original city plan in eighteen eleven had no 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.960 mention of any park. But for you city planning nerds, 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:55.679 I know you know this already if you're a city 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:59.360 planning nerd. But John Randall Jr. He was the man 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.520 who laid out that the grid for New York City 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.440 very famously. I saw a documentary on it. Yeah, it's amazing. 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.360 He drove these iron I believe iron bolts into the 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:14.240 ground with his fingers, his bare hands. It was a 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:17.839 surveying bolt and it was to map out that that grid, 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:20.880 like every block. Can't you see one? Still there's one 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:23.000 in Central Park that they found it. Don't think they 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:25.360 found any other ones in Central Park. But it has 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:27.400 nothing to do with Central Park because this is like 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:30.760 a good fifty sixty years before they even thought of 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:33.479 forty years before they even thought of Central part. It 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:35.680 was like maybe this is part of the grid, the 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:39.719 street grid. So there's one in a boulder that Um, 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:41.800 I mean, I'm not gonna say where it is. You 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.279 gotta go find it. Huh. Well, that that's they try 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:46.720 to keep it on the download as far as the 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:49.560 actual GPS coordinate, like these people that hunted it down 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.039 and found it. It's like a speakeasy, but sort of 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:54.640 just a bolt in this it's a bolt in the stone, 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:56.800 and you will become the king of New York if 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:58.920 you can pull it out. Oh you should not, dare, 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:02.000 nothing should be there for eternity. But there's there's supposedly 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:04.800 more of them. Uh, And there are people that go 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:06.880 around and try and find these is kind of neat. Yeah, 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:08.520 it is neat, So I guess I'm a city planning 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.560 at heart. I have to say, Um, I came across 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:15.240 the great site called the Femeral New York that documents 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:17.240 like all the New York that's been lost and built 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:21.400 over and changed over the time. They have a great website. 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:23.360 Go check it out because we got some of some 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.200 good stuff from them for this episode. All right, So 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:31.400 where we left off before my nerdy segue was you 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:33.560 were talking about wealthy New York are saying we want 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.440 to park. Um, there's a more cynical view that was 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.440 we want to park and that would also greatly increase 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:45.920 increase the land value around the park. Um, where we 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:49.840 own houses. Yeah, because just like today, the area around 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:54.160 Central Park was very well healed um well in some places, 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:57.320 in other places not at all. In the place where 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.880 this where what Central Park is now, there was a 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:05.160 lot of, um, very low income people living there. So 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:09.000 you have very rich people surrounding very low income people, 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:11.960 which I'm guessing made the low income people very nervous 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.480 and eventually justifiably so, because the low income people are 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:17.360 the ones who had to move to make the park 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.320 initially for the rich people. Should we go and talk 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:23.720 about that, Why not Seneca Village? Yeah, and well they're 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:27.200 Seneca Village and then they're largely Irish and German immigrants 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:31.200 in Seneca Village. Uh, well, and all over Seneca Village 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.959 is only one small part of this immigrant housing that 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:38.040 was sort of around the park that. Uh. Of course, 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:40.040 when you know, you know what imminent domain is. If 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:42.560 the city wants to build the park there, they're going 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.079 to get that land one way or the other. Yeah, 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.120 the New York legislature, the state legislature said, yep, New 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.400 York City, you can exercise eminent domain over that and 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:53.360 take whatever land you want. You got to pay them 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.080 fair market value, which is up for debate if it 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.280 was actually fair. But those people have to move, whether 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.640 they like it or not. Right. So Seneca Village was 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.320 founded in eighteen twenty five. There was a couple in 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:11.240 eighteen twenty four named John Elizabeth Whitehead who bought Now 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:15.280 they owned farmland. Oh that okay, all right, I did. 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:17.319 I thought they'd in the land for a long time. Now. 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:21.880 They bought farmland between eighty two Street and then between 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.959 eight and eighteen thirty two started selling it off, and 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:30.000 they sold fifty parcels of that land, half of which 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:35.640 went to UH people of African descent, which was very 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.080 unusual at the time to say the least. It was 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.520 um and so like. Basically, out of this, out of 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:44.760 this sale of lots, over this period of time, the 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:49.360 Seneca Village started very quickly. Um. The people who lived 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:53.840 there built a house or school, UM, churches, a couple 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:58.160 of churches, houses, um and like, this village developed, this community. 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.040 So there's a couple of things that was remarkable about 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:06.480 Seneca Village. One, these were African American landowners, which was 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:09.560 very unusual at the time because even at this time 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:12.720 slavery was still on the books legal in New York. 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:17.400 And these were um freed or unenslaved African Americans who 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.240 owned land, which meant if they owned two d and 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.200 fifty dollars worth of land, they could vote, which would 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:26.800 have made them um like like there were a hundred 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.960 African Americans who could vote at this time, because that's 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.240 how that's how how few of them actually owned land. 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.120 Ten percent of those people lived in Seneca Village. So 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.720 this is a really unusual spot. But It was also 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:42.080 unusual because it was a place where African Americans and 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:47.040 European settlers or European immigrants lived together, like lived in 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:50.720 this community together. Yeah. Um, but should say you also 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.280 had to jump through certain other hoops to vote. Wasn't 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:57.280 quite as simple as owning land, because that would be, um, 0:10:57.320 --> 0:10:59.640 I guess too easy for them back then, which was 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.439 to say, not easy at all. But they still said, no, 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:04.200 there's some other things you still got to do to vote. 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.320 That we mentioned the other stuff too, uh And big 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:11.679 shout out to Andrew william He was the first man 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.760 of African descent who bought land that would become Seneca 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:19.760 Village in September eight Um. But like you said, it 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:23.600 was Irish and German immigrants moved in there as well, 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.640 and they were welcomed and it was by all accounts 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:31.360 a multi cultural society that um got along well with 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.439 one another, went to the same church. Yeah, that's enormous, 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:36.920 pretty amazing, buried in the same graveyard. There was a 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.679 midwife there who lived in the village and she delivered 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:44.199 babies of any ethnicity or race. Yeah. No one knows 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.319 why it's called Seneca Village on most maps. It's known 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.160 as Yorkville. Oh, I thought that was a different place. 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.079 That the Yorkville people moved up to Seneca Village after 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.839 they got moved out. Wow, Yorkville, there was another york 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.480 town that I'm thinking of. But this was on maps 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.640 as Yorkville. And no one knows if it was a 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:05.320 distortion of Senegal or if it might have been code 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.199 for the underground railroad. It's another theory. Another theory is 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:14.439 that it was derogatory somehow because areas where African immigrants 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:19.520 would live they would call bad names. Just whatever I see, 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:21.800 So who knows. No one knows for sure where Seneca 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.640 Village came from the name. At least it was interesting. 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:28.199 So it sounds like Seneca Village is great. It was. 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:31.760 It must have had fortune smiling on it throughout its time, right. 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.920 Not true? So Seneca Village was in the way of 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:38.880 this this proposed park, right, so let's get We'll just 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:41.560 go ahead and cut to the chase here. Seneca Village was. 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:47.439 They had to move, which is sad because the community ended. 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:49.800 Then when the when the state and the city moved 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.640 in and said this is this is city land. Now 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:54.680 you guys will have to move here some money for 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:58.720 your land. Um, the community broke up, it didn't resettle 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:02.240 a reform elsewhere. Was like ephemeral, like that ephemeral New 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:04.680 York site. It was. It lasted for a few decades 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.000 and it was peaceful and harmonious, and then it was 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:09.360 gone because they had to move to make way for 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.000 Central Park. Yeah, it took a couple of years of 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:14.960 fighting the law, but eventually the law went out and 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.480 uh and it was a this called in this article 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:22.320 a violent clearing of Seneca Village. Um. Like they basically 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:25.120 sent cops in there with their batons and like physically 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.880 removed people. Yeah, and there was a a big kind 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:33.600 of um media blitz in favor of moving everybody out. 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:36.440 They were, you know, derided as a shanty town of 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:40.120 squatters and stuff like that, despite the fact that most 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:41.760 of the people who lived there are a lot of 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.160 people who lived their own their land in their houses 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:48.720 and had for decades. Then, Um, they were they had 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:50.959 just as much right to be there as anybody else. 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.520 But the popular opinion of the public at the time 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.320 was they were just squatting and they should be forced 0:13:57.320 --> 0:13:59.679 to move. And it was totally justifiable to come in 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:03.079 with police batons to clear them off the land. Uh. 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:06.240 In two thousand eleven, the sort of weird silver lining 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:09.640 is the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.440 got permission after ten years of trying from the Central 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:17.200 Park Conservancy to excavate a couple of sites in the village. 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:20.360 And they went in there and excavated, excavated two different 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:25.000 home sites, and on one they found some artifacts, but 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.520 it was clear that it had been already buried under 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:34.200 Central Park. Um, whatever we've been when they built Central Park, right, 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.040 they had already dug it up when they did. The 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.280 other one, though, was original, and they found the original 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.640 soil of Seneca Village at the former yard of Nancy Moore. 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:47.200 Pretty neat and they have two fifty bags of material 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.680 to analyze now and soil samples and some artifacts to 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.760 see what life was really like back then. So pretty cool. 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:58.240 So they better get to it, that's right, Um, all right, 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:00.520 why don't we take a break and then come back 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:05.440 and talk about the park? Is it in Boston? Now? Yeah? 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:30.520 What happened there? All right? Chuck? So um, I think 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:34.040 by eighteen fifty three their head. I think in the 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:36.760 eighteen fifties there is like this drumbeat to have a park. 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:40.000 Everybody wanted a park. Yeah. William Cullen Bryant was one 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.480 of the big names who edited the Evening Post, which 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.040 is now the New York Post. UM and he was 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.240 a well known poet at the time and a beloved figure, 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.280 but he definitely used the Post as a platform to 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:56.480 advocate for this green space. Now again, there's a lot 0:15:56.560 --> 0:16:00.480 of um understanding in this day and age that the 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:04.960 wealthiest New Yorkers wanted this park for themselves. Basically, they 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.360 wanted their new city that they had built to to 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.800 rival Paris or London, and it needed a park. They 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.680 wanted to go show off their carriages in the park, 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:18.400 but they also advocated publicly for the park for the 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.280 working classes, the middle class. They should have a place 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:25.000 to to come and hang out. And this is you know, 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:27.760 this is America. Of course everyone will be welcome. It's 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:31.520 a public park. It will be America's first landscape public park. 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.640 And so people really kind of got on board with this, 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:37.760 and by eighteens, even though that was kind of a lie, 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.800 it was at least at first um. But by eighteen 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.520 fifty three I believe work started. There was a central 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:49.200 park that had been designated land had been designated for 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:51.960 the Central Park by then, that's right. And they had 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.520 a contest. Uh. I believe it was the first design 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:59.360 contest in the country. A lot of first that said, 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:05.400 designer park, you gotta have a parade ground, you gotta 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:07.960 have a principal fountain, you gotta have a lookout tower, 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.520 you gotta have a skating arena. You gotta have four 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:15.240 cross streets because people still got to get through there somehow. Uh. 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:17.280 In a in a palace, I'm sorry, a place for 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:21.119 or a palace, why not for an exhibition or a 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:29.720 concert hall? Very specific rules for this design contest that 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.200 that was one by two gentlemen, very famous now gentleman 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:44.960 named Frederick law Olmstead and Calvert vote or vour vote 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:52.040 but definitely not vox vox x is always silent um. Yeah, 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:54.679 those two submitted something called the Green's Word Plan and 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:56.840 they won. I like that name. And they won for 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:01.200 a couple of reasons. One um uh uh. Frederick law 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:04.359 Olmstead was the superintendent of Central Park at the time. 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:08.480 Probably didn't hurt no, um, but he wasn't a shoe 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.159 and I believe his boss I can't remember like what 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:13.720 position his boss would have had his boss submitted a 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:19.119 plan too. Apparently he and vow um they're playing this 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.400 greenswere plan that they submitted was just so obviously head 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.919 and shoulders above every other design that was submitted that 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.080 it was just clear like from the outset, Yes, these 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:31.440 guys should win, and it was. It's considered a work 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:34.000 of art still to this day, although they actually went 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:38.680 on to design Prospect Park in Brooklyn. That's supposedly their 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:42.199 masterpiece over Central Park is Prospect Park. I mean, I 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:44.720 love them both. Yeah, they're both great. I've never been 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:46.880 to either of them. That's not true. No, I swear 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.520 to God, I've never I mean I must have before. 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.600 But I mean what we were so okay, I walked 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.719 like fifteen paces in Central Park, right, it was just 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:01.120 like we weren't in there for long, right, That's that's 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.120 that's really the only thing. Yes, And I've never been 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:09.480 in Prospect Park. Boy, I have explored there's so much 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:13.399 of it, But I bet you I've explored of the 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:19.320 bottom of Central Park. I haven't been over like Street 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.040 a lot north of that, but that's where it gets 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:25.240 a little more wild anyway, Um, and not wild like 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:30.680 the parties coyotes, but a little more, a little more 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.920 wild as far as the design goes, well, very purposefully, yes, right, Okay, 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:39.000 I'm glad you said purposely because supposedly the bottom half 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:41.640 of Central Park, so the part of the park itself 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.560 is meant to evoke New York State. The bottom half 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:50.040 is much more urban refined. Um uh, trimmed, I don't know, 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:53.119 And it's meant to reflect New York City. And then 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:55.040 as you get further up in the park, it's a 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:59.960 little more wild. There's parties and coyotes all. Uh, you know, Poughkeepsie. 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:04.520 You've never been to Bethesda Fountain. I don't believe I have. 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:08.320 I've seen never been skating, drink so many episodes of 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:13.359 Order there I can't distinguish reality from fantasy. Man, I'm like, 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:15.840 so like, I'm going into my memory. I'm like, okay, turn, 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:20.200 You're right. Is Lenny Briscoe standing there from TV? Well, 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:22.000 I've never seen an episode of that, so I guess 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:28.080 we're even what Yeah, you've never seen an episode of 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:31.000 the ten thousand episodes of Law and Order. Oh you're 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:36.000 missing out, Chris North and um, what was Briscoe's name? 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:41.000 Jerry or Bach those two together. Ye, Benjamin Bratt was 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:43.719 a close second to the Chris North Jerry or Bach thing. 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:46.400 And then it just keeps going on like they were 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:49.360 so good at all of them were just amazing. But yeah, 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:51.119 a lot of stuff took place in Central Park. So 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:53.760 I feel like I've been there. Here's what you do, man, 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:55.639 next time we go to New York. I know that 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:59.200 we typically stay downtown. Um, stay up by the park. 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:01.719 Well let's stay then, just like get out in it. 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:05.520 I've developed a taste for the Upper west Side, but 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.920 but not the park, like the right You're so close, 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.680 I will go out. I'll take a helicopter, I will 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:14.240 go out of my way. I like Lower east Side 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:16.800 and Upper west Side are my two favorites in New 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:20.520 York in Manhattan. Interesting, Yeah, what what you like? Lower 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:22.360 east Side? I like it? Oh man, Well, I mean, 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:24.120 my very favorite part of New York is the West 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:27.800 Village for sure, But I like the Lower east Side. 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:29.840 I like it in the East Village still a little grungy. 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:33.120 Is there such a thing as the Lower west Side? 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:35.679 That wall street? No? Like? Well, I mean wall streets 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:38.240 all the way down. But I would say, like if 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:40.560 I mean I don't think it's called the Lower west Side, 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:43.399 but like the meatpacking district okay, yeah, like like the 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.359 high Line that's probably Lower west Side. There's some really 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.560 great art galleries in the meat package. Oh man, boy. 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:51.000 When I first started going to New York, that was 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.399 when it was still shady over there, and like you 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:58.159 would walk through like blocks and blocks of industrial meatpacking 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:00.480 plants to get to like the one bar was open 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:03.119 that knowing had heard of, and then Juliani came in 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:08.320 clean the place up. Well, just thank god for him, right, Um, 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:13.200 So the design of Central Park, the Greensward, Oh yeah, 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:16.840 like if you have so much information to go over, 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.200 I know, should this be a two parter? I don't know. 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:22.960 Let me ask you. Has our podcast gotten more conversational 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:29.080 this question aside, hasn't it? I don't know. Okay, I 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:31.600 think I think we've always been conversational. Yeah, but I mean, 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:36.199 like this seems like a binnacle of conversation. Well, let 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:38.679 me say this. I think episodes one through four fifty 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:47.359 we're less conversations than But what about what about I 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:50.639 don't know? All right, Uh, the Greensword plan. If you 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:53.680 didn't know anything about Central Park, you may be under 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:57.800 the misconception that they just sort of squared it off 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:00.919 and rake some things around and that, and it was 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:03.720 like there's the park and like, let's just protect this 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:08.440 green space. But it was highly highly, highly designed, and 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:13.800 apparently they used as much explosives as would later be 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:17.280 used at the Battle of Gettysburg. You supposedly more to 0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:20.639 blast away rock and move that rock, because I remember 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:23.040 the glacier that moved all that rock down. That's a 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:25.000 big problem when you're trying to build a park, like 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:29.040 planted hundreds of thousands of trees, swamps that they couldn't drain. 0:23:29.160 --> 0:23:32.000 They just building further to build likes. Yeah, so it 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:35.200