CENTRAL PARK—A “LANDSCAPE IN THE ENGLISH PASTORAL TRADITION.”

CENTRAL PARK—A “LANDSCAPE IN THE ENGLISH PASTORAL TRADITION.” For a long time when I was living in New York City, I naively believed that Central Park basically reflected the terrain that was there in the 1600’s—at least that the topography was basically unchanged. In fact, Central Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. This article ( by Elizabeth Blackmar and Roy Rosenzweig) says that: “The designers sought to create a pastoral landscape in the English romantic tradition.” Some 20,000 workers dynamited rocky ridges, moved nearly 3 million cubic yards of soil and planted more than 270,000 trees and shrubs. What was it like before the landscaping? “An irregular terrain of swamps and bluffs, punctuated by rocky outcroppings….”