The creators of the 585-acre Prospect Park – Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux – considered this an improvement on their other New York project, Central Park. Created in 1866, Prospect Park has many of the same features. It’s gorgeous, with a long meadow running along the western half, filled with soccer, football, cricket and baseball players (and barbecuers), hilly forests and a lovely boathouse on the east side.
Many visitors come to bike, run, stroll or just lounge around. It has a zoo, an ice-skating rink (which becomes a water play area for kids in the warm months), and pedal boats for hire in the summer. There are are also free concerts at the Prospect Park Bandshell (near the 9th St and Prospect Park W entrance).
