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The Bridle Path passes under many of Central Park's bridges and arches and through its most recognized landscapes
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It may seem surprising that Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux originally proposed only a modest bridle path to accommodate horseback riding; they were reluctant to bring another distraction of City life into the bucolic refuge of Central Park. But in the late 19th and early 20th centuries there were literally hundreds of stables in Manhattan where horses could be boarded or rented. Two powerful members of the City commission overseeing the Park's construction disagreed with the designers' priorities. Financier August Belmont and banker Robert Dillon shared a fondness for horseback riding.
Dillon and Belmont won out. The original plan to have the bridle path loop only around the Reservoir was changed; additional loops were added to the north and to the south. The northern loop branches off from the Reservoir loop just north of 96th Street. The path then passes between the pastoral East Meadow and the contiguous North Meadow with its Recreation Center and twelve ballfields. It heads north and turns west into the Park at 104th Street, and then crosses the northern portion of the wooded Ravine and the Loch, and swings south, paralleling the West Drive. It passes the Tennis Courts and then reconnects with the Reservoir loop.
The northern loop still follows its original design, but today's southern loop differs from the 1860s original. It has surrendered part of its length to the Zoo, Wollman Rink, and the Heckscher ballfields. The southern loop still begins on the West Side, just north of the 86th Street transverse road. It heads south, passing the Arthur Ross Pinetum to its east and Summit Rock to its west. It skirts the Great Lawn and swings south alongside the Shakespeare Garden and the Swedish Cottage. The southern loop then runs close along Central Park West. It passes the Lake to the east, and then Strawberry Fields. Continuing south, the path passes Sheep Meadow, Tavern on the Green, and Heckscher ballfields, ending somewhat abruptly near Central Park South and 7th Avenue.
Of New York's hundreds of earlier stables, only one remained operational: Claremont Riding Academy, established in 1892 as a public livery stable and the oldest continuously operating stable in the United States. The riding school was formed in 1927, and it was a sad day when it closed permanently on April 29, 2007.
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