Central Park In Bronze

Location: Columbus Circle (intersection of 59th Street, Broadway, and Central Park West)

Artist/Designer: Gaetano Russo

Materials: Carrara marble, granite, bronze

Installation: 1892

Funding: Italian Americans

 

This huge monument, erected to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s “discovery” of the New World, welcomes visitors outside the southwest corner of Central Park. Russo’s 13-foot-tall marble Columbus stands atop a 35-foot-tall granite column that rests on a 28-foot-high pedestal. Bronze bas-reliefs on the pedestal depict Columbus coming ashore in the Bahamas. All three of his ships are represented on the column. Columbus, a younger man than the one seen on Central Park’s Mall, holds the tiller of a ship. 

 

The imposing monument is located at the center of a busy traffic circle. This is the point from which all distances to and from New York City are officially measured.