New York City’s Central Park is nothing less than a marvel of urban design and engineering. If you’re looking, you can find fascinating bits of history around every turn. Here are ten things you may not know about Central Park…

1. There are nearly 60 miles of pedestrian paths throughout the 853 acre park.

2. No two bridges are alike. In fact, every architectural detail in the park is unique.

3. Shakespeare Garden was created to show Americans the plants and flowers mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays, as many of the plants are not native to North America.

4. The Central Park Carousel travels at 12 miles per hour, more than twice the speed of most contemporary carousels in the US.

5. Like everything else in the park, the 22 acre Lake is entirely man made, and filled with water from the Croton Reservoir.

6. The Mall in Central Park is home to the largest grove of American Elm trees left in North America.

7. Each of the 26,000 trees in the park has been planted – and planted to appear as if they had grown there naturally.

8. Over 275 species of birds visit Central Park each year.

9. Every European Starling in North America today (estimated at over 200 million) is descended from a small flock of birds that were set loose in the Park in the 1890s – again with the intent of introducing to the US a species referenced by Shakespeare.

10. The Central Park “rule” states that all statues  can only be commissioned after someone has been dead for 10 years. The only exception? Balto the sled dog that saved Nome, Alaska - whose statue was unveiled less than a year after his heroic journey.

For more amazing facts, stories, and anecdotes about the most visited urban park in the United States, check out our audio tour, Central Park: An Urban Marvel.