Shane's World of Wonder: Central Park Adventure

Oct 6

7 min read

On Saturday, ‎June ‎20, ‎2026, I met my friend from Halfmoon, NY which is in the Albany area at Grand Central to take a long walk in Manhattan, beginning at the train station, going through a large section of Central Park, and ending at the 86th Street Lexington Ave. subway station. It was nice to see him again as we do not see each all that often. We began by exiting the train station and going east on East 42nd Street. We then turned left on Lexington Ave. and headed North 17 blocks to 59th Street. We then entered Central Park somewhere along 59th Street and headed in the general north direction (uptown) in the Park. We discussed my recent visit with my family to the Bronx Zoo (you can read my blog entry about that by clicking here) and my friend shared that he recently went to the New York Knicks victory parade down the Canyon of Heroes to celebrate the Knicks first championship since 1973.

This is the story of our journey through the Park based on the pictures and a video I took in chronological order starting with the Indian Hunter sculpture located at in the center of the Park near 66th Street. This sculpture, created by John Quincy Adams Ward, displays a Native American man hunting beside his dog. In order to create the sculpture, Ward went to the then named Dakota Territory in 1864 to watch Native American life, attempting to depict his object of study with emotion and realism. When Indian Hunter was installed in Central Park in 1869, it became the first sculpture by an American artist to be placed there.

The sculpture named Indian Hunter features a hunting man and his dog on a pedestal among trees. — *Indian Hunter* Sculpture

Next, we saw the Eagles and Prey sculpture, located in the center of the Park near 69th Street, which was made by French artist Christophe Fratin in 1850. Cast in Paris, it is the longest-standing known art piece on City parkland. In 1863, American millionaire Gordon W. Burnham donated Eagles and Prey to the Park. Eagles and Prey is the first work of sculpture, not a monument, mounted in Central Park. The piece shows two eagles attacking a goat.

Bronze eagles and ram sculpture on pedestal in Central Park on a Sunny Day — *Eagles and Prey* Sculpture

After that, we observed The Lake with trees and the Manhattan skyline in the background. If you are wondering what is the lake's name it is simply The Lake, hence my capitalization of the T and L in The Lake.

Central Park scene with boats on The Lake, people picnicking on the grass, and tall buildings under a blue sky with small white puffy clouds. — View of The Lake and Manhattan Skyline

Then, we saw Belvedere Tower. It is here where instruments are housed for the weather readings in Central Park.

Stone castle-like tower under a bright blue sky. — Belvedere Tower

Below is a description that explains the tower being created in 1869 as a lookout tower. It was later converted to a weather station by the US Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) into a weather station in 1919. Temperature, wind, and rainfall are measured from Belvedere in a fenced off area just to the south of the tower using scientific equipment.

Bronze Belvedere Tower plaque describes the history of the tower — Belvedere Tower Description

In 1982, restoration of the Belvedere Tower was completed thanks to funding by the donors listed on this plaque.

Bronze Belvedere plaque on side of tower — Belvedere Tower Plaque

We got a great view of Central Park from the tower. The tower is found on Vista Rock, a rocky outcrop on the second highest natural point of Central Park with a view of Turtle Pond. Per its namesake, Turtle Pond consists of many species of turtles.

Sunny city park with people relaxing on the grass by Turtle Pond, green trees, and skyline under a bright blue sky. — View of Central Park, NYC Skyline, and Turtle Pond

After that, we saw a monument that was a tribute to King Jagiello (1352–1434), a horseback rider and Grand Duke of Lithuania, that became the King of Poland. The monument shows the 1410 Battle of Grunwald where the King was given two swords by his adversaries, the Teutonic Knights of the Cross. Ironically, Grand Master von Jungingen of the Teutonic Knights gave two swords to King Jagiello in an attempt to bring his opponent to battle ultimately contributing to his downfall. This is an unbelievable to say but its true.

Bronze King Jagiello statue on horseback raising swords on a sunny day — King Jagiello Monument

We then passed people on the Great Lawn. I find it fascinating that is located at the exact geographic center of Central Park. It also has an interesting history. It was created in the 1930s to replace a large reservoir that was completed before Central Park even existed (in 1842 to be exact). This reservoir used to be a key of NYC water distribution system which supplied drinking water for NYC. When this reservoir was determined to be obsolete in 1917, ideas from New Yorkers flooded in (pun intended), including a World War I memorial, a sports venue, and an opera theatre. After the reservoir was drained, a huge lawn for sports and playgrounds were built on the north side of the former reservoir while a small pond (now Turtle Pond) was created on the south side. These were finished in 1937. By the 1970s, a combination of heavy use and poor maintenance led to the Great Lawn's severe decline so much so the area got dubbed "The Great Dust Bowl." In 1997, the Central Park Conservancy completed a multi-million dollar restoration project that returned the Great Lawn to its former splendor balancing its use for sports and peaceful relaxation. A part of the Great Lawn is shown below.

Crowded sunny park with people picnicking under large trees near a baseball field — The Great Lawn

We then went through part of the Arthur Ross Pinetum. As part of the original design of Central Park, where construction began in 1858 and was completed in 1873, designers Fredrick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux put in coniferous trees consisting of pine, spruce, and fir trees. These trees extended from 72nd Street to 102 Street on a the west side of the park on a section called Winter Drive. The placement of these trees were so that visitors on horse drawn carriages or sleighs could enjoy them in the winter. However, by the late 1800s, these trees were replaced by deciduous trees. Going forward in history, by 1971, philanthropist Arthur Ross, along with the Parks Department returned pine trees to a modest 4 acre section of Central Park between 84th and 86th Streets in the Mid-Park area. Ross, in addition to loving trees, believed the beauty of the Park was hindered by maintenance buildings along 86th Street (which goes directly through the Park) and hoped to obstruct them from view. Pines are more effective at obstructing buildings than deciduous trees in the winter because pines keep their leaves for more than one growing season while deciduous trees lose all of their leaves every autumn. The Arthur Rose Pinetum consists of 17 different species of pine trees. Some of the pines are shown in the picture below.

tall pine trees and green grass under a bright blue sky. — Arthur Ross Pinetum

After that we walked part of the Bridle Path adjacent to the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, which holds over one billion gallons, covers approximately 106 acres, and has a maximum depth of 57 feet (although this level varies based on rainfall which raises the water level and dry periods where the water level lowers as well as modern management by the NYC Department of Environmental Protection for structural maintenance). The path is a one way path in which the rules state walkers, runners, and horse back riders go counterclockwise around the reservoir. Of course, on that day, we saw people breaking the rule and going the wrong way on the path. The reservoir looked beautiful on a sunny day against a spectacular blue sky backdrop with white puffy cumulus clouds. The weather was warm and dry with temperatures in the 80s degrees Fahrenheit. We were lucky in that the weather can be hot and humid this time of year in NYC.

The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir has an interesting history. It was constructed between 1858 and 1862 to keep drinking water for NYC. To serve NYC's growing population, the Board of Water Supply gradually built a system of upstate reservoirs and tunnels (the first tunnel which was completed in 1917). This made the reservoir where the Great Lawn is today, which I mentioned earlier in this blog entry, obsolete. In 1993, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir was decommissioned for a couple of reasons: concerns about water contamination from algae and expansion of NYC's water supply system, including the building of the third water tunnel. In 2009, the Central Park Conservancy completed the restoration of a fountain the was originally installed in 1917 to celebrate the finishing of construction of the Ashokan Reservoir upstate and the dedication of NYC's first water tunnel. Today, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir is maintained by the NYC Department of Environmental Protection. If used today, the reservoir would only be able to provide a day's supply of drinking water to New Yorkers.

The 30 second video below I shot on my cell phone for this blog entry as well as for Film Lab class I took with Kate Libby Coaching from April to August of this year. In the class, we created a short documentary titled: On Tap: An Investigation of NYC's Drinking Water. This film explores the quality of NYC drinking water as well as goes into detail about where NYC water comes from. You can view the film by clicking here. The footage I shot below is called B-roll and is used in documentaries as background footage in the film to supplement the main topic and hold the attention of the viewer with aesthetically pleasing views to reinforce the narrative of the film. Although the video below never made it into the film as it was cut in editing and a description of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir never made it into the film (due to the fact that the documentary is only 7 minutes and 42 seconds), I wanted to share my intention to use it in the film class nonetheless to explain how and why B-roll footage is taken and tell some of the story of how I co-created this documentary.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/5702ee_5422bfa312324b889f504088d7974826/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir

After we passed the reservoir, we exited Central Park at 5th Ave. and East 86th Street and walked 3 blocks east to 86th Street Lexington Ave. Subway Station where at that point I got on the subway and my friend continued to walk in Manhattan. We went our separate ways to conclude a successful outing.

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