You won't believe what's buried under Central Park and how it will save lives!

Central Park 843 acres of trees Meadows and shimmering waters sequestered from Manhattan's jungle of glass concrete and steel it's New York's second most frequented tourist attraction but there's a reason New Yorkers call it their backyard 70% of the parks daily visitors live in the city from summertime picnics to winter strolls and visiting our favorite places New Yorkers love Central Park which is why this upset us so much you can see the Central Park precinct has posted this electronic sign here in the park asking for witnesses to last night's terrible accident just speeding cyclists in Central Park two pedestrians have been hit and killed and right now police are cracking down but is it really making a difference Fano crashed in a high-energy bicycle accident when he attempted to avoid another rider in Central Park on Sunday today it was a free-for-all bicyclist failing to stop for red lights Penney cabs doing the same and pedestrians who crossed against the light you in 1811 a master city plan was adopted to help New York grow into a bustling city it cast Manhattan's well known grid across the island swallowing its green space by 1857 New Yorkers were hungry for a park frederick law olmsted a farmer and rider and Calvert Vaux an architect won the design competition to bring them one they really wanted to create naturalistic even in the late 1850s the designers were concerned about the safety of pedestrians they detested the dangerous street crossings in lower Manhattan and knew that the park would have to accommodate horse-drawn carriages riders on horseback and pedestrians the bridges that are in Central Park were put there to separate foot traffic from carriage traffic and at the time bridle trails and people are now crossing the streets where that was never something that was in since its construction the way we use Central Park has changed as has its transportation infrastructure in 1934 a man named Robert Moses became New York City's park commissioner he brought with him a new priority for our city unless we launched a a new program a much larger program we're going to face a situation where we can't accommodate the output of cars we're originally Sudeste ins were kicked in the park for Moses and so one of those changes happened near the mall the parks Elm blind promenade featured in several movies such as Kramer vs Kramer breakfast at tiffany's and made in Manhattan it was designed as a place to mix and mingle the northern side of the mall is home to Bethesda Terrace probably the parks best-known arch it overlooks Emma Stebbins angel of the water sculpture another park favorite Terrace which is absolutely beautiful but just on the opposite end of the mall there was Marble Arch and it was it was really something to behold built with marble from a Westchester quarry the arch met the walking trail at its southern entrance and delivered pedestrians north to the mall by two grand staircases the interior was lined with marble benches a stone drinking fountain and a semicircular grotto the arch didn't fit into Moses plans to expand the roadway for better vehicle access and was partly collapsed and covered with dirt leaving behind one of the parks most dangerous crosswalks it was a very very beautiful way to get people across the street keep them away from Karen another Moses casualty was out set arch made of cast iron and ornamental slender twisting spandrels it was one of three arches added to the park by Calvert Vaux and 1873 to improve traffic flow but the nearby menagerie soon-to-be redub to the Central Park Zoo was showing signs of fatigue very sturdy and so rather than building stronger cages the politicians decided that it was best for men with guns to stand outside the cages and be sure that the Lions or the Tigers didn't escape Moses built stronger cages but also expanded the zoo swallowing up the nearby bridle trails and out set arch in the process and more changes were still to come Moses elements ways that they could have fun and so he introduced a lot of those Moses is on a building spree determined to give New Yorkers things to do he tore out more bridle trail and converted in informal sports and leisure area called the playground into the Heckscher ball field leaving another arch in his wake the quaint oval arch north of Heckscher ball fields he had plans for the green where at the time about 200 sheep lived every night the flock walked from the green across the street to the sheepfold Moses to put an end to this converting their home into Tavern on the Green today the former green is called Sheep Meadow at any given time on a busy summer day you'll find about 30,000 New Yorkers gathering here to soak up the Sun to get to the meadow they must cross one of the parks most dangerous crosswalks on the green one of the most famous restaurants and you Siti something that attracts lots of tourists so there are locations in the park that are now heavily frequented by people that were never there before further north a team of 1,000 workers demolished a defunct 31 a chorus eaving reservoir built prior to the park the rectangular structure stored emergency drinking water but had been deemed unnecessary 17 years earlier in its place Moses would build the Great Lawn a sprawling meadow with incorporated baseball diamonds and nearby playgrounds over the years it would host crowds in the hundreds of thousands for artists including Simon & Garfunkel Elton John Diana Ross and aundrea pucelli nearby Moses built Turtle Pond and eventually the Delacorte feeder home to Shakespeare in the Park the crosswalk to get to these locations just inside the park from 81st Street in Central Park West has been deemed the most dangerous crosswalk in Central Park by the Department of Transportation 160 years ago Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux knew Central Park's roads would become too dangerous for pedestrians but 50 years after Robert Moses retired we've all but forgotten the arches they built to protect us our solution is to take some bridges into the park in those places and not just any bridges but bridges which were originally in the farm New York should restore Marble Arch to its natural home at the base of the Central Park Mall and retrofit reconstructed versions of outset arch and oval arch to the parks other problem areas in some parts of the park archways already exist relatively close to crosswalks new york should revise pathways that were hastily added in modern times allowing pedestrians once again to cross the street safely I think that this is something that not only will save people's lives but adds Beauty to the park dad gives us something to be excited about and something to see and not just any beauty but something that was historic and something that was taken from us I mean this is part of our legacy as New Yorkers you know to have this big beautiful archway in the lower section of the park that's just buried below our surface feel like digging that up is pretty exciting thing for more information visit central park Arch project org to sign our petition and donate to our cause together we can make the park a safer and more beautiful place [Music]

Channel: City Boy

Views: 683,247

Rating: 4.205791 out of 5

Keywords: Jill Tarlov, Irving Schachter, Calvert Vaux, Urban Planning, pedestrian safety, safety, arches, archways, bridges, crosswalks, history, New York City, Central Park Arch Project, park safety, Frederick Law Olmsted (Landscape Architect), Bicycle Safety (Film Subject), New York City (City/Town/Village), Central Park (Venue), Central Park Zoo (Zoo), Great Lawn, Tavern On The Green (Restaurant), Sheep Meadow (Location), Shakespeare in the Park

Id: A6HZ58KM6kU

Length: 9min 18sec (558 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 19 2015