Our NYC Rock & Roll tour visits the site of the Grateful Dead’s first concert in New York, Tompkins Square Park. So, we asked our friends at The New-York Historical Society, which has been showing an amazing Grateful Dead retrospective (thru Sept 5th), to write a bit about the Dead in NYC. Wow!

Guest blogger - Nina Nazionale, co-curator of The Grateful Dead: Now Playing at the New-York Historical Society on view now through September 5, 2010.

People tend to associate the Grateful Dead with the San Francisco Bay Area, which makes sense because that’s where they first started playing, where individual band members lived, and where they spent a lot of their time. When people think of the Grateful Dead in New York City, besides hearing the lyrics to “Truckin” in their head (“New York got the ways and means, but just won’t let you be”), it’s often a memory of attending, or hearing about, a series of sold-out shows, either at Madison Square Garden/Felt Forum or the Meadowlands complex (Brendan Byrne Arena + Giants Stadium) in East Rutherford, NJ.

Dennis Larkins and Peter Barsotti, Radio City Music Hall poster Oct. 22-31, 1980. Special Collections, University of California, Santa Cruz. Grateful Dead Archive.

What most people don’t realize is the Grateful Dead first performed in New York City in 1967 and played at a lot of different small-to-medium sized venues well into the 1970s. Here’s a little background. Be sure to scroll down for a list of sources I consulted to write this post. And to those who were lucky enough to attend one of these early New York City concerts: Don’t be shy! Share the details! Post away!

The Grateful Dead first came to New York to play a 10-night run, beginning June 1, 1967, at the Café Au Go Go, located at 152 Bleecker Street in the Village. They played downstairs while Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were playing upstairs. Others performing at the Café Au Go Go around the same time were Eric Anderson, Dave Van Ronk, and Richie Havens.

While playing the Café Au Go Go the Dead stayed at the Van Rensselear Hotel, at 15 East 11th Street. In his memoir, Searching for the Sound, Phil Lesh describes trying to sleep, in a room without air-conditioning, in New York City, in the summer: “Trying to sleep your first night in New York ain’t easy anytime, but having the windows open to the music of the city made it impossible. Layer upon layer of sound—cars, horns, shouts, rumbles, sirens, cries, laughter, gunshots, screams, sirens, bells, impacts, screeches, sirens—the whole urban symphony of Industrial Man, coming from near and far, high and low, finally weaving a shimmering web of discontinuous rhythm, and in the longest slow fade ever, subsiding over hours to a dull roar, felt rather than heard, only to rouse itself anew as the sky brightened with the light of another day. If I slept at all that night, I must have dreamed it.” And, according to Dennis McNally, Bob Weir “almost came to tears over the traces of broken dreams that he could imagine ‘humming and buzzing in the elevator cage’” at the Van Rensselear.

In keeping with how and where they had been playing in the Bay Area—a mix of free, impromptu, outdoor concerts and unrehearsed performances at intimate, indoor venues—the Grateful Dead played a free concert in Tompkins Square Park on Thursday, June 1, before taking the stage at Café Au Go Go. New York City park officials hoped that the concert would help lessen the growing friction between Puerto Rican residents, who had been living in the area since the 1950s, and more recent arrivals, the hippies. The concert was preceded by a parade down St. Marks Place, after which Ron “Pigpen” McKernan was given a white carnation key to the East Village. Richie Havens opened for the Dead.

Two days later, on June 3, the Grateful Dead traveled to the Stony Brook campus of the State University of New York, about 50 miles east of Manhattan, where they played in the gymnasium, and then returned to the Café Au Go Go for another performance.

On Thursday, June 8, 1967, the Dead played another free, outdoor concert, at the bandshell in Central Park. The New York Times headline read “The Music Is Hip in Central Park, 450 at the Band Shell Hear Electric-Guitar Combos.” The review began: “Hippies armed with electric guitars occupied the band shell at the Mall in Central Park yesterday and opened up with their musical artillery. An audience of about 450 withstood the two-and-a half-hour barrage. About half the audience was composed of hippies, from 15 to 32 years old. The rest appeared to be passers-by.”

Before heading back to San Francisco, the Dead played one night at the The Cheetah, a popular discotheque, located in midtown Manhattan.

The Grateful Dead returned to New York later in the summer, where they played a private party, intended to raise money for the Diggers, an anarchist guerilla street theater group. Billed as a “Trip Without a Ticket,” the party took place on the roof of the Chelsea Hotel. It was, as Rock Scully so aptly describes it, a gathering of the hipoisie: a combination of heirs, heiresses, and stock brokers, who spent their time at the Hudson Valley Millbrook estate, dropping acid with Timothy Leary, plus Andy Warhol’s entourage from The Factory. It definitely wasn’t the Dead’s usual audience; the band did it as a favor to the Diggers.

An event that harkened back to the Grateful Dead’s playing Tompkins Square Park on June 1, 1967, and also involved the Diggers (although, sorry, not the Grateful Dead), was a “conga-rock party” at The Cheetah on August 15, 1967. The Diggers, described by the New York Times as “the worker-priests of the hippy movement,” provided 1,000 free admission tickets, distributed through the Diggers’ Free Store in the East Village and through the Real Great Society, a group devoted to helping the Puerto Rican community. The goal was to “relieve the tensions that have been growing this summer between the Puerto Rican community around Tompkins Square and the hippies, who have been moving into the area in increasing numbers recently.” The music was provided by The Players, The Strawberries and the Mongo Santamaria Jr. Band.

In late December 1967 the Grateful Dead came back to New York to play the Palm Gardens, a midtown club. They then moved downtown, where they played at the Village Theater, which had previously functioned as a movie theater and a venue for Yiddish theater. Located at 105 Second Avenue, at the corner of 6th Street, the theater needed serious structural repair, a fact that was clear when snow fell on the band—from a hole in the roof—as they performed. It was so cold that the drummers had to wear gloves and concert goers built a bonfire on the floor in front of the stage. By the following March, the Village Theater would be transformed into the Fillmore East, repaired and restored by the concert producer and promoter Bill Graham, who also ran the Fillmore West in San Francisco. The band’s appearance at the Village Theater ended a year in which the Grateful Dead performed in New York City 19 times, all between June and December.

Turn the page and it’s 1968. In the spring of 1968, the Grateful Dead were booked at the Electric Circus, located at 23 St. Mark’s Place, for May 7-9, and—just like the preceding summer—they played two free concerts, at Columbia University and in Central Park, while in town. At the end of April 1968 students at Columbia University had occupied administrative buildings in protest of, among other things, the university’s role in developing weaponry for use in the Vietnam War. On April 30, police moved in and cleared the buildings, arresting 712 students. Students then called a strike, resulting in a shut down of the campus for the rest of the semester, with all entrances guarded by the police. Unable to pass up the chance for a little mischief, the Dead’s manager got in touch with the strike organizers by calling the Village Voice, and arranged to have the band slipped onto campus in a bread delivery truck on Friday, May 3. The strike organizers were excited by the prospect of having a P.A. system at their disposal, even though they were expressly told that it was for the use of the musicians only. When one of the strike organizers grabbed the microphone one too many times, Bob Weir kicked him off the stage. Look for a great photograph of the Grateful Dead playing at Columbia, taken by Rosie McGee, in our exhibit.

The day after playing at Columbia, the Grateful Dead traveled out to the State University at Stony Brook, where they played in the gymnasium, just as they had the year before, then returned to New York City to play Central Park, where they shared the stage with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the Jefferson Airplane. The Village Voice reported “No tricks, just music, hard, lyric joyous—pure and together, dense and warm as a dark summer country night. There’s the Dead and then there’s everybody else…” A New York Times reporter wrote “The Dead are extremely driving, amplified and hirsute, even by San Francisco standards, and in their finale, one of the drummers appears to run amok and savagely attacks his cymbals, while another member of the band sets off a small explosion.” Following their free performance in Central Park, they played six shows, spread over 3 days, at the Electric Circus, the booking that had brought them to New York City in the first place.

On Friday, June 14, 1968 the Grateful Dead played the Fillmore East for the first time. It soon became a kind of home-away-from-home for them: they played there a total of 43 times between June 1968 and April 1971, years during which they experimented and—some would say— perfected their sound. With 2,600 seats, ornate murals and a gilt chandelier, it was an inviting, comfortable place to play and hear music. The Dead played 4 shows at the Fillmore East in 1968; 8 shows in 1969; and, reaching a true creative peak, 21 shows in 1970. They performed there for the last time (10 shows) in April 1971, just two months before the Fillmore East closed. Look for recordings of the Dead’s Fillmore East performances from February 13 and 14, 1970, released as Dick’s Picks Volume Four. Definitely required listening for anyone interested in the Dead’s early years in New York City. To get a sense of what the Fillmore East looked like—inside and out—check out Amalie Rothschild’s amazing photographs in our exhibit.

Fillmore East January 1970. Photography by Amalie R. Rothschild; courtesy UC Santa Cruz

In addition to spending a lot of time at the Fillmore East during the next few years, the Grateful Dead played throughout the New York City metropolitan area: the New York State Pavilion in Queens, built for the 1964 World’s Fair, in July 1969 (they were the first rock band to play there); back at the Café Au Go Go in September 1969; Colden Auditorium at Queens College in October 1970; both the Action House in Island Park, Long Island, and the 46th Street Rock Palace (built as a movie theater) in Brooklyn, in November 1970; a benefit for the Hell’s Angels (in my mind the Diggers were a worthier cause, but so it goes) at the Anderson Theater, on Second Avenue near 4th Street—just a few blocks below the Fillmore East—in November 1970; the Manhattan Center in April 1971; Gaelic Park in the Bronx in August 1971; the Academy of Music (later the Palladium, where the Dead played 5 nights in 1977) on East 14th Street in March of 1972. In 1970 and 1971 the Dead played the Capital Theater in Port Chester, a suburb north of the city, 19 times. Later, between 1976 and 1980, they played a different Capitol Theater, in Passaic, New Jersey—10 times. They also appeared frequently at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in the Long Island suburb of Uniondale—a total of 42 times between 1973 and 1994. Recordings of their May 1980 appearances at Nassau Coliseum were released on CD in 2002. A poster advertising the release of the compact disc hangs on what we think of as “The Wall of Posters,” in our exhibit.

On the same wall look for Dennis Larkins’s striking poster for the Grateful Dead’s 8-night appearance at Radio City Music Hall in October 1980. Larkins’s Radio City poster is based on the one he did for the Dead’s appearance at the Warfield Theater, San Francisco, in 1980. Larkins also designed the poster and T-shirt for our exhibit, The Grateful Dead: Now Playing at the New-York Historical Society. Also of interest regarding the 1980 Radio City shows are a group of surveys filled out by audiences at video simulcasts of the Dead’s shows at Radio City in 1980. Whether people liked the video simulcast or not, when asked if they wanted to be added to the Grateful Dead’s mailing list, most everyone opted in. The concert is viewable on the DVD Dead Ahead.

And you know all about the Grateful Dead playing Madison Square Garden 9 nights in both 1988 and 1991, right? Check out the T-shirt, in our exhibit, designed by Antonio Reonegro, an artist based in Staten Island, for the September 1991 shows. His sketch for the T-shirt is also on display.

I’ll leave you with the fact that the Grateful Dead played the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden 5 times at the end of 1971 and, between 1979 and 1994, played Madison Square Garden 52 times. They appeared at the Meadowlands (Brendan Byrne Arena + Giants Stadium) 30 times between 1978 and 1995. The Grateful Dead’s June 19, 1995 appearance at Giants Stadium was the last time they played New York City. Jerry Garcia died less than two months later, on August 9, 1995.

The Grateful Dead: Now Playing at the New-York Historical Society is on display through Sunday, September 5, 2010.

Recommended Sources

Books:
Fong-Torres, Ben. Grateful Dead Scrapbook. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2009.
Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. New York: DK Publishing, Inc., 2003.
Jackson, Blair. Garcia: An American Life. New York: Penguin Books, 1999.
Lesh, Phil. Searching for the Sound. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2005.
McNally, Dennis. A Long Strange Trip: the Inside History of the Grateful Dead. New
York: Broadway Books, 2002.
Parish, Steve. Home Before Daylight: My Life on the Road with the Grateful Dead. New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003.
Scully, Rock. Living With the Dead. New York: Little Brown & Co, 1995.

Websites:
www.dead.net
www.deaddisc.com
www.deadlists.com

CDs:
Dick’s Picks Volume Four: Fillmore East 2/13-14/70, released 1996. Liner notes by Owsley “Bear” Stanley.
Grateful Dead Go to Nassau (May 1980 concerts), released 2002 (re-release 2004).

In celebration of Earth Day, Central Park: An Urban Marvel is available FOR FREE with the purchase of any other New York City audio tour from CityListen.

Once again, CityListen is inviting you to celebrate Earth Day in the most visited city park in the United States. Central Park is the perfect place to celebrate Earth Day and gain an appreciation for nature and sustainability.

Central Park is one of our most popular tours in New York City. Can’t decide between Greenwich Village and Central Park? Or Broadway? Or Rock and Roll? Between now and April 30th, that decision just got easier. Buy any of these other NYC tours and Central Park is yours for free. Enjoy Central Park on Earth Day - and save the other tour for another beautiful day in New York.

While Central Park is almost entirely manmade and, in fact, stands as a monumental achievement in urban landscaping and design, the park is a sanctuary to millions of New Yorkers and an oasis of nature featuring a number of unique species of flora and fauna.

To access your FREE tour
1. Go to the Central Park tour and click on “Add to Cart” just above the photo gallery.
2. Do the same for any other New York City tour in our portfolio.
3. Proceed to checkout.
4. When prompted for a promotional code, enter green2010 (no spaces, case sensitive).
5. After you enter your credit card info, you will get a confirmation of your order before it goes through - and then you’ll see the links to download your tours.
6. NOTE: These tours must be purchased in the same transaction. Promotion expires Midnight EDT April 30, 2010.

Once downloaded, your tours can be immediately transferred to an iPod or MP3 player and they will not expire. The running time of the Central Park tour is about 45 minutes and the full tour experience can take over two hours, plus time for additional stops you may like to take along the way.

And, of course, we’d love to hear what you think about Central Park, this tour, Earth Day, pretty much anything at all. Drop us a line at feedback@citylisten.com.

Happy Earth Day. We look forward to walking with you.

Guest Blogger: Sarah Protzman, NewNewYorkers

Spend an afternoon playing foodie, and walk it off as you admire some architecture. These three pit stops on the West Side of Manhattan are not to be missed.

The High Line
Various entrances; elevator at 14th Street and Tenth Avenue
From there, head to the much-anticipated High Line, a new park built on an elevated railroad overlooking the Meatpacking District. As it gets warmer, those chaise lounges overlooking the Hudson will get crowded, so head over for sun and a stroll! It’s easily navigable, but here’s a great map. When it was in operation (1934 to 1980), the High Line carried meat, agricultural goods and mail to West Side neighborhoods.

Chelsea Market
75 Ninth Avenue at 16th Street
A short jaunt from the Highline, this gourmet paradise will make you wonder why you order takeout so much. Everything from Saltines to Oreos was made at this former site of the National Biscuit Company, now the delightful Chelsea Market. As you meander the hallways, don’t miss The Lobster Place (oysters on the half shell!) and the cupcakes at Eleni’s. They also have sample sales and live music — an events calendar is on the Web site.

Sarah Protzman is full of useful tips for enjoying life in New York City. Check out the NewNewYorkers blog and follow Sarah on Twitter

Other than Bialystock & Bloom in Mel Brooks’ The Producers, no one sets out to manufacture a Broadway Flop. Yet the streets of Broadway are littered with some notorious failures. There is something kind of poetic about truly bombing on Broadway (except, of course for those involved). The creators talk about being misunderstood or too far ahead of their time or victims of a critic conspiracy - but more often than not, the shows were just plain old awful.

In celebration of our Walkin’ Broadway tour, we present the Top Ten List of Broadway Flops. There are plenty more out there. These are our faves. (Please add your own!) Many link to their original New York Times review, because scathing reviews are pretty darn funny.

10. Late Night Comic, 1987
How’s this for a bad sign: the director removed his name from the credits after the previews before the show opened on Broadway. He probably shouldn’t have bothered; the show only lasted four performances. The New York Times review probably didn’t help: ”Late Nite Comic has no sense of direction. It also has no sense of book or score.”

9. Via Galactica, 1972
This one was a rock musical that starred Raul Julia as a space sanitation man living on an asteroid 1,000 years in the future. It was a originally entitled Up! – but appearing at the newly opened Uris theater, the producers thoughtfully avoided a billboard that read Up! Uris. True.
NY Times Review

8. The Capeman, 1998
“It would take a hard-core sadist to derive pleasure from the sad, benumbed spectacle that finally opened last night at the Marquis Theater, three weeks behind schedule.” Paul Simon’s much anticipated pop-opera hit the stage with a thud. While it survived a couple of months after opening, this one was pretty much dead on arrival. Paul Simon did release an album of the songs to some generally positive reviews. And in 2008, Simon performed a series of concerts “Songs from The Capeman” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
NY Times review.

7. Lennon, 2005
Continuing the trend of the ‘jukebox musical,’ Lennon aspired to be an interpretation of the life of John Lennon through the lens of his music. But the seemingly manufactured nature of the show was a “drippy version of his life” that featured a “Muzak-alized assortment of Lennon’s non-Beatles songs.” In a style not unlike that employed (more successfully) in the Bob Dylan-inspired film I’m Not There (2007), 5 actors portrayed different aspects of Lennon’s life. Weak reviews drove the show to close in about 6 weeks.
New York Times review

6. Frankenstein, 1981
The most expensive dramatic production to come to Broadway at the time, Frankenstein lasted just one night at the Palace Theater. Elaborate special effects and a ballooning budget behind extensive scenery (and the huge crew of stagehands to move it all around) made it impossible for the production to withstand a critical panning.

5. Dude, 1972
A musical from the creators of Hair, (one of whom was also the composer of Via Galactica, also on this list) this was a high-concept production that scattered the orchestra around the audience and turned the theater into an arena. Rewrites and last minute personnel changes pushed the budget of this “monstrosity” ever upwards, leading Newsweek to posit, “Only in America can a million dollars be thrown directly into the garbage disposal that is the cultural machine operated by the Holzers (the show’s backers) and their ilk.” A bunch of Dude articles are indexed here.

4. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1966
A beloved film makes its way to the Broadway stage as a musical. And starring Mary Tyler Moore as Holly Golightly. Sounds perfect. What could go wrong? Well, everything. Constant rewrites and massive changes – all the way up to and including the Broadway previews. Breakfast at Tiffany’s The Musical never made it out of previews. Producer Bob Merrick announced the abrupt close of the show with an ad the New York Times explaining that he chose to shut down the production “rather than subject the drama critics and the public to an excruciatingly boring evening.” (As the show never opened, there were no reviews to link to. Too bad!)

3. Kelly, 1965
Once considered the flop of all flops, this was a musical about a con man who reneges on a promise to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1880s. After pretty bad reviews in warm-up runs in Philadelphia and Boston, the producers brought in Mel Brooks, among others, to rework the script. More bad reviews, a big budget and some negative publicity all teamed to close this show after opening night to make it the most expensive flop in its day.

2. Carrie, 1988
A musical of the version of the Stephen King novel / horror movie classic about a taunted teenager with telekinetic powers that she unleashes at the prom. Expectations were actually pretty high for this one. The show was produced in conjunction with the Royal Shakespeare Company and had some strong talent pulling it all together. A production budget of blockbuster proportions and scathing reviews across town did it in. Thanks to its combo of pedigree (from King to a classic movie to the RSC), high expectations, huge budget and a run of just 5 performances, Carrie is often considered the quintessential Broadway flop.

1. Moose Murders, 1983
One night. One great (read: hysterically awful) review in the New York Times. Moose Murders could be the worst Broadway play of all time. Opening to dreadful reviews and closing on the same night, this is the flop that Bialystock & Bloom dreamed about. Perhaps a recent reference in Times described it best, as a “monumental fiasco…which closed almost before the final curtain.”

We are putting the finishing touches on a new Broadway tour that is truly a one-of-a-kind experience. Interspersed amidst the history of Broadway theater you’ll hear exclusive anecdotes and recollections from the likes of legendary producer and director Hal Prince (Fiddler on the Roof, Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, Cabaret, …), Tony® Award winner James Naughton, renowned actor Ossie Davis and so many more actors and creators from shows like Pippin, Godspell, A Chorus Line, Avenue Q, and on and on.

If you are a fan of Broadway theater, this is an experience not to be missed. And, like all of our tours, this is absolutely a not-just-for-tourists kind of activity. Plus, you can enjoy the tour on your own time, at your own pace.

Hosted by Peabody Award winning broadcaster and producer Elliott Forrest, here is an audio tour that takes full advantage of the medium to bring you the fascinating and rich stories of Broadway lore directly from the people who made them happen.

Walkin’ Broadway will be available within the next two weeks. We’ll keep you posted.

It has been a wet spring in New York City, wreaking a bit of havoc on outdoor activities. But if you are looking for a silver lining, you’d have to admit that there is a certain charm to a rainy New York City.

The rhythms of the sidewalk change ever so slightly, as a sea of umbrellas alters everyone’s personal space. There is a shared experience with other New Yorkers as you step into a building or a restaurant and shake off the rain. There is the occasional adventure of the street corner with a puddle so massive you need to walk halfway down the block to cross the street.

For many, the rain is hardly the time to see the sights. How can you enjoy a stroll thru Greenwich Village while huddled under an umbrella in the pelting rain? Well, you can look for some silver lining in an audio walking tour. All spring the rain has been on-again, off-again. Driving rain for 20 minutes, followed by a good spell with barely a drizzle. Perfect for an audio tour that let’s you stop when you want, for as long as you want. Rain getting a bit heavier? Duck in for a coffee until it passes. You’re back out there and the rains pick up again? Find the closest gallery, museum, bookstore - and while away some time.

New York City doesn’t stop in the rain. Don’t let your plans get washed out - whether in New York or any city you are planning to see by foot. Plan ahead and make sure you’ve got a walking tour (or two) loaded into your iPod, ready to work for you at a moment’s notice. Anyone can enjoy a walk in the city on a beautiful sunny day. Let an audio tour help you enjoy it when the weather is less than cooperative.

You don’t need to be a tourist to take an audio tour. Wherever you live, I’ll bet you’ve walked by plenty of plaques, plazas and parks and never really thought twice about them. Somewhere in the recesses of your mind, you’ve wondered: Why is this street named Waverly Place and how come it intersects itself at the corner of Waverly Place and Waverly Place? (true, in NYC’s Greenwich Village). The best way to find this stuff out: walk the streets with an expert guide filling your head with history, story and lore.

1. Take the time to soak it in
Buildings, shops, street signs that you pass everyday have a back story that will quite simply just surprise and delight you – and you’ll never walk by them quite the same way again.

2. Impress your out-of-town friends
Have out-of-towners coming to visit? Know your stuff. Show them where Hendrix used to busk on the street. Or where to find a great “secret” view of the city.

3. Impress your local friends
Surprise your friends with some great local lore about George Washington or Jack Kerouac or Andy Warhol. (It really depends on your friends. And where you live.)

4. It makes a great date

Walk hand-in-hand with your better half as you both see explore your city together. Use two iPods, or share one with a splitter (it’s kind of like sharing a soda with two straws) – and the two of you will be walking in your own little universe together. Very romantic.

5. Talk about bang for the buck…
Not only is it a great date, it’s a cheap date. As memorable activities go, a two-hour tour for under $10 is a pretty good deal.

6. It’s like the DVR of activities
Once you download a tour, it is there for the taking. No scheduling necessary. No guides to wait for. No groups to meet up with. Just you and your iPod hitting the streets. And you can stop and start as often as you wish.

7. You’ll be inconspicuous as a “tourist”
Feel odd about doing the tourist-y thing like taking a tour just a few blocks from where you live? No worries. With an audio tour, you’re just taking a walk with your iPod and no one’s the wiser.

8. Where’s the downside?
You take a walk outside. You gain a new appreciation for a local neighborhood. You learn something new and arm yourself with some great cocktail chat at the next summer barbeque. What could be bad?

9. Give yourself something to blog about or tweet about
A good tour is packed with great material that we’re sure your readers and followers would enjoy. And, while we can only speak for CityListen, we’d bet that any of our fellow publishers would be happy to have you blogging about them.

10. It’s fun
Give it a shot. Leave work a few minutes early and get a tour in before dinner. Wake up before your usual time and take a mentally stimulating walk before you head to the office. Or make a day of it: stop along the way for lunch or to sit on a park bench and watch the “real” tourists; or follow it up with a night on the town. Simply put: it’s a great experience. It’s different, it’s enlightening and it’s fun.

Search Google or Bing for audio tours in your city. You’ll be glad you did!

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.