The sidewalks surrounding Central Park were designed to help you escape. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the landscape architects behind the landmark, proposed in their 1858 planning document to plant a plush line of trees to separate the sidewalk and the road, “for the purpose of concealing the houses on the opposite side of the street, from the park, and to insure an umbrageous horizon line.”Hexagonal asphalt tiles were placed and granite blocks were laid out in intricate herringbone and basket-weave patterns, forming the distinctive path that is now traversed by 42 million visitors every year.

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Persons: Frederick Law Olmsted, Calvert Vaux Locations: Calvert, “