The USA paid more for the construction of Central Park (1876, $7.4 million), than it did for the purchase of the entire state of Alaska (1867, $7.2 million).

12 Secrets of New York’s Central Park

No natural landmark in New York City is as iconic as its beloved 843-acre park. As Columbia University professor Elizabeth Blackmar notes in her book The Park and the People: A History of Central Park, it’s made cameos in high and low culture alike, from the writings of Walt Whitman and J. D. Salinger to pop culture standbys like “Wall Street” and “When Harry Met Sally.”

These days, 42 million people visit Central Park every year, rambling about its sprawling Sheep Meadow, its lovely lake, and its epic gardens. Seth Kamil, whose company Big Onion has led tours of Central Park and other NYC landmarks for a quarter century—and who actually met his wife while leading one of his tours decades ago—told us a few little-known facts about this … Continue Reading

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Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/12-secrets-new-yorks-central-park-180957937/