Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
50 free Central Park trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Central Park trivia quiz covers the 843 acres between the Upper East and Upper West Sides that make up the most visited urban park in the United States. It starts with how the park came to be: the 1853 act, the villages cleared by eminent domain including Seneca Village, the design contest won by Olmsted and Vaux's Greensward Plan, the English park that inspired it, the sunken transverse roads, and the land bill that cost more than Alaska. From there it tours the landmarks and their stories: the Angel of the Waters at Bethesda Fountain, the obelisk older than anything else in the park, the Imagine mosaic that Italy donated, the sled dog statue, the sheepfold that became Tavern on the Green, the elms of the Mall, the castle on Vista Rock, the reservoir renamed for Jackie Onassis, the Ramble's 250 bird species, the Blockhouse from the War of 1812, and the Christo Gates of 2005. It also asks about Robert Moses, the Conservancy, the concerts, the marathon finish line, the police precinct, the census tract with a population of four, and why the park has been in 231 movies. Questions range from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia article on Central Park.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many acres does Central Park cover?
843
That makes it only the sixth-largest park in New York City, behind Pelham Bay Park, the Staten Island Greenbelt, Freshkills, Van Cortlandt and Flushing Meadows.
Q 02Which two landscape architects won the 1858 design competition for Central Park?
Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux
Their entry, one of 33 submitted, was called the Greensward Plan; Olmsted called the result 'the first real Park made in this country'.
Q 03What was the name of Olmsted and Vaux's winning design?
The Greensward Plan
Unlike rival entries it separated the park from the city with sunken transverse roads and avoided symmetry for a picturesque look.
Q 04Which English green space, visited by Olmsted in 1850, inspired the design?
Birkenhead Park
It is generally acknowledged as the first publicly funded civil park in the world; landscaped cemeteries like Mount Auburn and Green-Wood were the other big influence.
Q 05What was the name of the majority-Black settlement razed to make way for Central Park?
Seneca Village
About 1,600 residents were evicted under eminent domain from villages that had been property-owning communities since 1825.
Q 06Central Park's land cost $7.39 million, more than the United States would soon pay for what?
Alaska
Supporters had promised the park would cost just $1.7 million.
Q 07Which famous author headed the park's 1856 'consulting board'?
Washington Irving
Bryant, editor of the Evening Post, had endorsed a big park back in 1844 and pushed for the rival Jones's Wood site.
Q 08What was the first feature of Central Park to open to the public, in December 1858?
The Lake
The Ramble followed in June 1859; the whole park was not finished until 1876.
Q 09How long, from north to south, is Central Park?
2.5 miles
It runs from 59th to 110th Street and is half a mile wide between Fifth Avenue and Central Park West.
Q 10How many visitors did Central Park receive in 2016, making it the most visited urban park in the US?
About 42 million
Only about 14% of visits are first-timers; roughly 70% of visitors live in New York City.
Q 11According to American Community Survey estimates, who lives in Central Park's own census tract?
Four females, median age 19.8
The 2010 census counted 25 residents in tract 143, though park officials deny anyone lives there permanently.
Q 12Which non-profit has run day-to-day management under contract with the city since 1998?
The Central Park Conservancy
It was founded in 1980 to fight the park's decline and also helped develop the High Line and Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Q 13Which parks commissioner cleared Central Park's 'Hoover valley' shantytown to create the Great Lawn?
Robert Moses
Q 21Which three women are depicted in Central Park's 2020 Women's Rights Pioneers Monument?
Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The Alice in Wonderland sculpture at Conservatory Water dates from 1959; there are 29 sculptures in the park.
Q 22After whom was the park's largest body of water renamed in 1994?
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Built between 1858 and 1862, it holds about a billion gallons and was decommissioned in 1993, the year before her death.
Q 23What is the highest point in Central Park, at 137.5 feet?
Summit Rock
He also turned the menagerie into the modern zoo and added 21 playgrounds with New Deal money.
Q 14Why were the sheep removed from Sheep Meadow in the 1930s?
To make way for a restaurant
The restaurant occupies an 1870 sheepfold at Central Park West and 67th Street, converted in 1934.
Q 15What was the restaurant at Central Park West and 67th Street originally built as in 1870?
A sheepfold
It closed in 2009 and reopened five years later; the park's other indoor restaurant is at the Loeb Boathouse.
Q 16What is the name of the statue at the centre of Bethesda Fountain?
Angel of the Waters
Emma Stebbins's 1873 work was the first large public sculpture commission for an American woman and the only statue in the original park design.
Q 17What is the oldest human-made structure in Central Park?
Cleopatra's Needle
The red granite obelisk was erected at Heliopolis around 1450 BC by Thutmose III and arrived in the park in late 1880.
Q 18Which pharaoh added the hieroglyphs to the park's Egyptian obelisk about 200 years after it was carved?
Rameses II
The obelisks got their nickname after being moved to the Caesarium in Alexandria, a temple begun by Cleopatra VII for Mark Antony.
Q 19Which country donated the 'Imagine' mosaic at the centre of the Strawberry Fields memorial?
Italy
The memorial to John Lennon, murdered outside the nearby Dakota, was rededicated on what would have been his 45th birthday, October 9, 1985.
Q 20The 1925 statue near East Drive by the Zoo honours which sled dog?
Balto
He became famous during the 1925 serum run to Nome, Alaska.
Vista Rock, the second-highest, carries Belvedere Castle and has the 79th Street transverse tunnelled beneath it.
Q 24What is the oldest surviving structure in Central Park, built before the park existed?
Blockhouse No. 1
It was part of Fort Clinton, near McGowan's Pass in the park's northwest corner.
Q 25How many species of birds have been recorded in the Ramble over the years?
At least 250
The 36-acre wooded area beside the Lake sits on the Atlantic Flyway and has been extensively restored with native plants.
Q 26Central Park's American elms are notable for what reason?
They are the largest remaining stands in the northeastern US
Their isolation protected them from the Dutch elm disease that devastated the species elsewhere.
Q 27How many baseball fields are there in Central Park?
26
Eight are on the Great Lawn, six at Heckscher Ballfields and twelve in the North Meadow.
Q 28Outside which restaurant does the New York City Marathon finish?
Tavern on the Green
From 1970 to 1975 the whole race was run inside the park; the New York Road Runners maintain a 5-mile loop there.
Q 29How long are Central Park's drives in total?
6.1 miles
They were closed to cars north of 72nd Street in 2015 and are the home course of the Century Road Club Association's races.
Q 30Which two duo or solo acts gave famous free concerts in Central Park in 1981 and 1997?
Simon & Garfunkel and Garth Brooks
The Naumburg Bandshell on the Mall has hosted concerts since 1923, including the oldest free classical series in the US.