Harlem Meer, Central Park
Encyclopedia
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
, in a section of park that was added to the original site, which had originally ended at 106th Street. It lies north of the Conservatory Garden
Conservatory Garden
The Conservatory Garden is the only formal garden in Central Park, New York City. Comprising , it takes its name from a conservatory that stood on the site from 1898 to 1934. The park's head gardener used the glasshouses to harden hardwood cuttings for the park's plantings. After the conservatory...
, with a meandering and diverse shoreline that wraps around the bluff that contains the Blockhouse
Blockhouse (Central Park)
The Blockhouse is a small fort in the northern part of Central Park, in New York City, New York, and is the oldest structure standing in the park. It is located on an overlook of Manhattan schist, with a clear view of the flat surrounding areas north of Central Park...
, the remains of gun emplacements erected for the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
, which never saw action. Today Harlem Meer has been reduced to 11 acres (44,515.5 m²) and 1.2 kilometers (3/4 mile) circumference by the construction of Lasker Rink
Lasker Rink
Lasker Rink is located in the northern part of Central Park in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just south of the 110th Street entrance between 106th and 108th Street. It opened in 1966 and lies between Harlem Meer and the East Drive....
and Pool in 1966, for summer swimming and winter ice-skating, over its westernmost end.
The Meer, as Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
and Calvert Vaux
Calvert Vaux
Calvert Vaux , was an architect and landscape designer. He is best remembered as the co-designer , of New York's Central Park....
called it, was excavated in the lowest-lying section of the park, a semi-brackish, partly tidal wetland, which drained slowly into the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
; as Harlem Commons It separated the former suburb of Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
to the north from the lower part of Manhattan Island
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. To avoid the swamp, the Boston Post Road
Boston Post Road
The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into the first major highways in the United States.The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York...
had detoured westwards into the future park site, rising to cross McGown's Pass. The Meer and its wooded landscape were carried out by Andrew Haswell Green
Andrew Haswell Green
Andrew Haswell Green was a New York lawyer, city planner, civic leader and agitator for reform. Called by some historians a hundred years later "the 19th century Robert Moses," he held several offices and played important roles in many projects, including Riverside Drive, Morningside Park, Fort...
, to Olmstead and Vaux's specifications, from 1861, while Olmsted had been relegated to an advisory capacity.
Harlem Meer once again has natural-seeming banks, restored in 1988-93 after a 1940s concrete curbing was removed, and the Meer was cleaned of 34000 cubic yards (25,994.9 m³) of sediment and debris and redredged. On its north shore, the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center was constructed, to provide visitor orientation for the north end of Central Park, in a style intended to harmonize with Calvert Vaux's original Victorian park structures. The waterside plaza next to it is the site for the late-afternoon Harlem Meer Performance Festival, from mid-June to the first week of September. Catch-and-release fishing is a favorite summertime occupation along the Meer's banks.
An island in the Meer provides a retreat for waterfowl, particularly Black-crowned Night Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
The Black-crowned Night Heron commonly abbreviated to just Night Heron in Eurasia, is a medium-sized heron found throughout a large part of the world, except in the coldest regions and Australasia .-Description:Adults are...
. The meer also has a resident population of muskrats.
Literature
The angler, artist, and author Ron P. SwegmanRon P. Swegman
Ron P. Swegman is an American angler, artist, and author. His work includes the illustrated essay collections Philadelphia on the Fly: Tales of an Urban Angler and Small Fry: The Lure of the Little:...
has made Harlem Meer the focal point of the essay collection Small Fry: The Lure of the Little. The book includes a section titled "Bright Fish, Big Cities", a pun on the New York novel "Bright Lights, Big City
Bright Lights, Big City (novel)
Bright Lights, Big City is an American novel by Jay McInerney, published by Vintage Books on August 12, 1984.- Plot :It is written about a character's time spent caught up in, and notably escaping from, the mid-1980s New York City fast lane. It is one of the few well-known English-language novels...
" by Jay McInerney
Jay McInerney
John Barrett McInerney Jr. is an American writer. His novels include Bright Lights, Big City; Ransom; Story of My Life; Brightness Falls; and The Last of the Savages...
; it details the Meer's history and describes the experience of fly fishing there in the twenty-first century.