Located about two miles from Downtown Nashville, Tennessee, Centennial Park is perhaps best known for its Parthenon replica. The 132-acre park originally opened in 1903 where the Tennessee Centennial Exposition was held in 1897. The Parthenon replica was built for the Nashville pavilion of the Centennial Exposition, but since it was largely out of plaster and as a temporary exhibit building, the structure was rebuilt in the 1920s. Prior to Centennial Park, the area was a fairgrounds after the Civil War and the home of a race track known as West Side Park from 1884 to 1895.
Central Park might be the most famous urban park in the world. City officials established the park in 1857 on 778 acres of city-owned land. The park was expanded to its current size of 843 acres in 1873. More than 40 million people visit the park every year. The U.S. Department of the Interior designated the park a National Historic Landmark in 1962.
To take advantage of its best asset, the city built a mile-long walkway along the Cumberland River. The walkway provides visitors with nice views of the traffic traversing the river and offers a nice respite from the city’s usually congested streets. The river is also the backdrop for many events, including an annual music festival and also the home to the Christmas on the Cumberland celebration.
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Dealey Plaza is today synonymous with the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. However, the history of the plaza dates to 1935 when it was dedicated. Named for longtime Dallas Morning News publisher George Bannerman Dealey, the plaza was completed in 1940. Construction of the 15-acre plaza was made possible after the Trinity River was rerouted to prevent flooding in the area. Home to some of the first settlements, Dealey Plaza is sometimes known as the “birthplace of Dallas.”
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Flushing Meadows–Corona Park is the largest park in Queens and the fourth-largest public park in New York City. The 897-acre park was created for the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair, and it later hosted the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair. The park is perhaps best know for the New York State Pavilion and the Unisphere, the giant spherical stainless steel representation of the Earth.
Nicola Salvi in 1732 won a competition to design a new fountain in the Trevi district of Rome. Giuseppe Pannini completed the fountain in 1762. Legend says anyone who tosses a coin into the fountain’s waters will return to Rome. The fountain, featured in countless movies, was built on the site of an earlier fountain.
Confederate troops in November 1861 built defenses overlooking the Cumberland and Red rivers. Following a major battle at Fort Donelson in nearby Dover, Confederate troops abandoned Clarksville; Union troops later found the abandoned fort and reworked it for their needs. In 2011, the city opened a $2 million interpretive center to tell the story of Fort Defiance. In addition to a movie in the center, visitors can see remarkable well preserved earthworks at the site and take in a newly installed Confederate money exhibit.
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Fort Lowell Park is home to the extant remains of the former Fort Lowell military post. The United States Army established the Post of Tucson in May 1862; they abandoned it in July 1864 but re-established it a year later. In August 1866, the Army named the installation renamed Camp Lowell in honor of Gen. Charles Russell Lowell. In March 1873, the Army moved the post to its current location, then located on the outskirts of Tucson, and renamed it Fort Lowell in April 1879. The Amry used this location from 1873 until 1891. The park is home to several of the post’s fortmer adobe structures and a museum.
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Fort Nashborough is a recreation of a stockade established in early 1779 in the French Lick area of the Cumberland River valley. The stockade was a forerunner to a settlement that would become Nashville, Tennessee. The square-shaped log stockade covered 2 acres and contained 20 log cabins. The reconstructed fortification, which stands near the original location, is maintained by Nashville Parks and Recreation.
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The 60-acre Founders Park sits on the site where the original “founders” of Rapid City camped in 1876. Most of the land, which serves as a trailhead for paths along Rapid Creek, was acquired following the 1972 Flood.
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