1859 - Environment

Environment

Boston's Public Garden is established on 108 acres of filled land owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (see Swan Boats, 1877).

The first Central Park transverse road opens, connecting New York's Fifth Avenue at 79th Street to Eighth Avenue (later Central Park West) at 81st (see 1858). The plan submitted by F. L. Olmsted and Calvert Vaux called for sunken transverse roads at 65th, 79th, 85th, and 97th streets, and the deliberately winding 65th Street transverse, blasted out of solid rock, has sidewalks for pedestrians running parallel to carriage drives and bridle paths.

The New York State Legislature authorizes acquisition of land for Brooklyn's Prospect Park (see Central Park, 1858).