New York (N.Y.). Dept. of Parks.

The vast urban park system in New York City (over 29,000 acres) has its origins from a 1686 charter by Governor Thomas Dongan which provided for municipal stewardship of vacant and unappropriated land. This charter enabled the city to acquire and maintain public spaces including a marketplace, a military and parade ground, and a public commons in today's lower Manhattan. Constructed on part of the land from the original public spaces, Bowling Green, the oldest public park in New York City, was established in 1733. The establishment of public parks in Manhattan during the 18th century, combined with the popularity of the park-like Green-Wood Cemetery (1838) in Brooklyn, led to the establishment of the first major park in Brooklyn, Washington Park (now Fort Greene Park) in 1848.

Beginning in the mid-19th century, some of the city's greatest parks were designed and constructed. From 1858, when Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted won the design competition to construct Central Park, through the end of the 19th century, Vaux and Olmsted designed and constructed Riverside Park and Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn. They also planned Eastern Parkway (1868-1874) and Ocean Parkway (1869-1876) which were intended to be landscaped routes connecting the parks in Brooklyn.

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