Central Park
New York City, New York
Address: 717 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10022
Phone: (212) 310-6600
About
Central Park covers 843 acres in the middle of Manhattan, running from 59th Street to 110th Street between Fifth Avenue and Central Park West. It opened in the 1850s as the first major landscaped public park built in the United States and remains the largest continuous green space on the island.
Paths inside the park lead to Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, the tree-lined promenade called the Mall, and Strawberry Fields, the John Lennon memorial near West 72nd Street. The Central Park Zoo sits near the 64th Street entrance. At the Loeb Boathouse, visitors can rent rowboats on the lake. The Great Lawn hosts pickup baseball and softball games, and in summer the Delacorte Theater stages Free Shakespeare in the Park in an outdoor amphitheater. Wollman Rink opens for ice skating in the colder months.
Walking the full length of the park, from 59th Street to 110th Street, covers about two and a half miles, so most people pick one or two areas rather than trying to see all of it in one visit. More than twenty entrances line the park's perimeter, and several subway stations sit within a few blocks, including stops near Columbus Circle at 59th Street, at 72nd Street, and at 96th Street.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History both sit along the park's edge, on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side respectively, and each is a short walk from inside the park. Restaurants and food carts operate near most of the major entrances.
Accessibility
Central Park is accessible for wheelchair users on many of its paths, but not uniformly, since some sections have stairs and the terrain varies from one part of the park to another.
The Central Park Conservancy publishes a printed Access Map that grades the steepness of paths and drives and marks where stairs occur. Staff at the park's visitor centers, such as the Dairy Visitor Center at mid-park and 65th Street or the Chess & Checkers House at mid-park and 64th Street, can walk through the map with you and help plan a route before you set out.
There is no parking inside Central Park itself. The nearest options are commercial parking garages on the surrounding streets, so drivers who need accessible parking should plan for one of those rather than expecting a lot inside the park.
Central Park Conservancy's online restroom locator lists wheelchair accessibility for each facility, so check it for a specific accessible restroom near where you plan to be, since coverage is not documented as uniform across every location.
The Conservancy does not rent wheelchairs or scooters inside the park, so bring your own mobility device or arrange a rental in advance. For route planning or other accessibility questions, call the Conservancy at (212) 310-6600.
Checked by Accessible America, August 2026. Report a change
How we checked this
We checked these details against official information from the venue and public agencies:
- centralpark.org (3 details, checked 2026-08-28)
More accessible places in New York
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York City)
- Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City)
- 9/11 Memorial & Museum (New York City)
- Top of the Rock (New York City)
- Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island (New York City)
- Intrepid Museum (New York City)
Photo credits
- Central Park's Harlem Meer reflects the Manhattan skyline beside the Dana Discovery Center.: King of Hearts, CC BY-SA 4.0 (source)
- Central Park Lake framed by trees with Manhattan skyscrapers rising behind it.: Nope1408, CC BY-SA 4.0 (source)
- Central Park's cast iron Gothic Bridge arches over a path framed by a large tree.: Jet Lowe, Public domain (source)
