Grand Army Plaza

Grand Army Plaza lies at the intersection of Central Park South and Fifth Avenue in front of the Plaza Hotel, stretching from 60th to 58th streets between East Drive and Fifth Avenue.

Grand Army Plaza is the gateway to Central Park. Of the four corners of Central Park, it's the only one that is officially part of the Park's 843-acre landscape. It is actually two plazas: 59th Street bisects it into two semicircles, a split design inspired by Paris' famed Place de la Concorde. The plaza was finished in 1916 and takes its name from the Grand Army of the Potomac, which was the Union Army in the American Civil War. The bronze statue depicts Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. When the Civil War ended, Sherman moved to New York City and rode his horse and carriage through Central Park daily. The Pulitzer Fountain lies in the second half of Grand Army Plaza, on the southern end. This Fountain features a bronze statue of the Roman goddess of abundance, Pomona. Grand Army Plaza is perhaps best know as the place to begin a horse-drawn carriage ride through the Park.