The Green Apple New Yorkers live in a big city, but they can also enjoy green, open spaces. Central Park In the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world, you can have a long, quiet walk under beautiful trees and over green hills You can take a boat out on a lake or you can sit and watch the wild animals and birds The place is Central Park. Many New Yorkers cannot imagine the city without the park. Some tourists think that the park shows natural Manhattan from the days before the city This is not true. In fact the park was carefully planned and built.in the 1850s, rich New Yorkers wanted a place like the parks in tondon and Paris, They wanted a park for walking or rding horses, Frederick Law olmsted and Calvert Vaux showed their plan for the park in 1858. But at the time the land this area of Manhattan was flat and not very nice. A lot of stone and earth was brought to make the park's hills Half a million trees and plants were put in the ground. Paths and beautiful stone bridges were built. The lakes and streams under the bridges were not there before. The park was finally finished in 1876. Today people still walk and ride horses in central Park. They also ride bikes. Cars can go into the park. but they cannot go everywhere. On the weekend, they cannot go in at all