Instant Cities: New York

New York › Places and landmarks

Central Park

The great park in the middle of Manhattan, four kilometres long, just north of the game’s map.

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Photo: Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Central Park runs from 59th to 110th Street, four kilometres of lawns, lakes, woods and rocks between the towers. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won the competition to design it in 1858, and almost all of it was shaped by hand: millions of cartloads of earth were moved and hundreds of thousands of trees and shrubs planted.

New Yorkers jog, row, skate and lie in the sun there, and about forty million people visit it every year. It starts a few blocks north of the game’s map, at the top of Fifth and Seventh Avenue. Ride through New York in 3D ›

More in New York

Empire State BuildingThe Art Deco tower on Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, the tallest building in the world from 1931 to 1970. Times SquareThe crossing of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, under walls of lit screens, at the heart of the Theater District. Chrysler BuildingThe Art Deco tower on 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, with a crown of steel arches and a needle on top. Grand Central TerminalThe great railway station on 42nd Street, with its hall under a ceiling of stars and its clock of opal. New York Public LibraryThe marble library on Fifth Avenue, guarded by the two stone lions Patience and Fortitude. Rockefeller CenterThe Art Deco towers between Fifth and Sixth Avenue, with the golden Prometheus, the skating rink and the Christmas tree. Bryant ParkThe green lawn behind the Public Library, with its plane trees, its green chairs and in winter its ice rink. St. Patrick’s CathedralThe Gothic cathedral of white marble on Fifth Avenue, facing Rockefeller Center. Macy’s Herald SquareOne of the largest department stores in the world, on 34th Street, where the Thanksgiving Day Parade ends. Statue of LibertyThe copper statue in the harbour, a gift from France, that greeted the ships of the immigrants. Yellow cabsThe yellow taxis of New York, which you hail from the kerb with a raised hand. New York pizzaThe big, thin pizza sold by the slice, to be folded in half and eaten on the street.