Central Park in New York was the first urban landscaped park in the United States, and the idea originated early in the 1850s, but the project took more than a decade to complete at a cost of more than $1 million (Waxman). The location was finally agreed on and construction began in 1857. The design was based on that of the winner of a competition run by Frederick law Olmsted, the park superintendent and Calvers Vaux, an architect, known as the "Greensward Plan" (History; Waxman) The city used the Power of Eminent Domain to acquire 840 acres in the center of Manhattan, running two and a half miles from 59th Street to 100th Street and half a mile from Fifth Avenue to Eighth Avenue. In 1863, the park was extended to 110th Street.
To make way for the park, roughly 1,000 people who had been living in the swampy area, some as legitimate renters and others as squatters, were evicted (Waxman). This included the inhabitants of Seneca Village, and African American settlement of about 270 people, a school and three churches, and also evicted was a convent and school, and bone-boiling plants. Though the landowners were compensated by the city, the $700 they were given was believed by many to be much below the actual value of their property on which they had their homes and their livelihoods.
The area had been chosen for the park because the swampy, rocky ground was unsuitable for commercial building (Waxman, 2006). The design incorporated the swamp into lakes and the city reservoir, and the rocky crags added to the countryside vista they wished to create. Four roads crossed the park to carry crosstown traffic, and there were only four buildings in the original plan. Thousand of Irish, German and new England-area workers were hired to create the park, and the park was first open to the public in the winter of 1858. The final stage of construction began in 1863, extending the park to 110th Street.
The park was obviously b...