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The tour begins at the William Shakespeare Statue at 65th Street and Center Drive. This tour is best experienced on a mobile phone.
The southern portion of The Mall, which you are walking along now, is known as the Literary Walk as it is lined with statues of writers. These include Fitz-Green Halleck, Robert Burns, and Sir Walter Scott, as well as Christopher Columbus. Halleck, born in 1790, was famous for his social commentaries, and the statue was unveiled on the year of his death to President Rutherford B. Hayes and a crowd of 10,000 fans. Scottish writers Scott, born in 1771, and Robert Burns, born in 1759, wrote novels and poems, respectively. The newest monument on the Literary Walk—the first added to the Park in more than 50 years—is the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument, placed in 2020.
One of the Park’s most striking features, the Mall, is a formal promenade lined with two rows of American elms, North America’s largest remaining stand of these majestic trees. It cuts a formal, straight path up through Central Park, an anomaly among the park’s predominantly meandering paths. The Mall provides the perfect setting for strolling and people-watching, just as it was intended by Olmsted and Vaux in the 19th century.
Let's continue down the Mall toward Bethesda Terrace.
The design duo referred to The Mall as “an open-air hall of reception,” and it remains to this day a place for New Yorkers and visitors to come together and be social and enjoy nature and art. Olmsted and Vaux’s vision of landscape as implied architecture is still clear: The elm trees’ curved branches seemingly vault above the path to create a cathedral-like space.
The American elm, sometimes called white elm, is known for its large, stately form. As such, it was chosen by Native Americans as “council trees,” or a signpost for significant tribal gatherings. Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry David Thoreau are among those who have extolled the American elm’s beauty in their works. For Thoreau, elm trees were almost anthropomorphic, showing a range of human characteristics. He saw elm trees as exhibiting stoic perseverance in the face of adversity. Of elms, he said, they "adjourn not night nor day, they stand for magnificence; they take the brunt of the tempest; they attract the lightning that would smite our roofs, leaving only a few rotten members scattered over the highway."
Sadly, mature elms like those lining the Mall are scarce in the United States, and particularly in the Northeast, due to infestations by fungi and elm park beetles that ravaged them in the early 20th century. Take a moment to appreciate their rare beauty and graceful forms.
Let's continue walking down The Mall toward Bethesda Terrace.
The Mall’s northern section was intended as an area to enjoy music in the 19th century. Architect Jacob Wrey Mould designed a cast-iron bandstand, later replaced by the Naumberg Bandshell in 1923, an iconic element of the Park which still hosts performances today and was the site of a speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. and a eulogy read for John Lennon.
Keep heading down The Mall toward Bethesda Terrace.
Literary Walk is a perfect place to people-watch and think. Pause for a moment as you read the poem, Sanctuary, by the 24th U.S. poet laureate, Ada Limón, from her book, The Hurting Kind, published by Milkweed Editions:
Suppose it’s easy to slip
into another’s green skin,
bury yourself in leaves
and wait for a breaking,
a breaking open, a breaking
out. I have, before, been
tricked into believing
I could be both an I
and the world. The great eye
of the world is both gaze
and gloss. To be swallowed
by being seen. A dream.
To be made whole
by being not a witness,
but witnessed.
Consider the last lines,‘To be made whole by being not a witness, but witnessed.” This is a good time to slow down for just a moment and take the time to acknowledge another person. Recent research has shown that tiny gestures can help people feel more connected. Give a nod, hello, or brief smile to someone near you, and share a moment of connectedness.
Spend as much time people-watching or enjoying Literary Walk and thencontinue toward the end of The Mall, which leads us to our next destination, Bethesda Terrace.
When you have reached the end of The Mall, select Bethesda Terrace from the pull-down menu on your tour screen.
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