Bryant Park, New York

Bryant Park is one of my favorite parks in New York. This park is very charming and welcoming. There you can find the fresh breeze under the shadows of the huge trees and a lot of places to sit and rest while exploring Manhattan.

The park is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan.

According to Wikipedia in 1686, when the area was still a wilderness, New York’s colonial governor, Thomas Dongan, designated the area now known as Bryant Park as a public space. The famous New York Public Library is located within this park.

From the 1847 this park was known as Reservoir Square. In 1884, Reservoir Square was renamed Bryant Park, to honor the New York Evening Post editor, American poet and abolitionist William Cullen Bryant. He was one of the most influential and popular figures of mid-19th-century America.

Bryant used the Post to crusade for the causes in which he believed, among them free trade, free speech, and the abolition of slavery. A leader of the anti-slavery Free-Soil movement within the Democratic Party, he was one of the founders of the Republican Party. He was also an early political backer of Abraham Lincoln and a loyal supporter of the Union during the War Between the States. The park have beautiful French garden style.

The restroom of the park is the most beautiful and most clean public toilet I have ever seen.

The toilet is decorated with fresh flowers, and constantly cleaned by the cleaning team members.

It is admission free.

Instead of benches this park is full of movable chairs, and this give sense of empowerment to park visitors, allowing them to sit wherever and in whatever orientation they desire.

Bryant Park is the most densely occupied urban park in the world. The daily attendance counts often exceed 800 people per acre.

It is an oasis for the midtown office workers, but also the best refreshment point for the midtown Manhattan visitors.

At the park you can find a charming art market, where the local artists exhibit and sell their artworks.

The Bryant Park Grill and Bryant Park Cafe have become popular after-work spots, and food and drink are served at four park operated concessionary kiosks.

At Bryant park you can also play different kinds of games, it has free Wi-Fi access to visitors, or you can let your kids have a ride on a park’s charming carousel.

All events at the park are free and open to the public, the only exception is the New York Fashion Week shows that are taking over the park for a few days in the winter and late summer. For that New York Fashion Week has to pay millions of dollars.

The Bryant Park Corporation is considering to ban these events in the cost of loosing millions of dollars. The reason is because the New York Fashion Week dominates the park during two crucial times: in late summer, when the weather is perfect for park visitors; and in early February, necessitating the early closure of the park’s popular free-admission ice-skating rink.

One is sure, this park is worth visiting while in Manhattan. It is not huge as a Central Park, but is very beautiful.

The park’s fountain is called The Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain and it is a memorial to Josephine Shaw, a social worker active in the late 19th century.

You can also find a reading room at the park. The books from the library and donations of magazines and trade publications from publishers made the open-air library a great success. But be aware that this area of the park is a quite area.

Bryant Park is also a favored setting for film and television productions. While we were visiting the park two filming were going on. Please let me know if you see me strolling at Bryant park with my camera in any upcoming films that is filmed in New York City this summer.