By Gus Saltonstall
A metal bolt protrudes out of a rock somewhere in Central Park. It is 218 years old and the only one of its kind in the park.
But what is it?
In 1808, an engineer named John Randel Jr. was tasked with a monumental responsibility. He was to travel around New York City and plant metal bolts at nearly 1,000 proposed intersections. And that is what he did for three years.
In 1811, he submitted his Commissioners’ Plan, and those bolts and intersections were famously used to create Manhattan’s grid system.
When Randel and his team installed the bolts, Central Park was still decades away from existence, as the park first opened in 1858. Additionally, the land that was eventually developed into Central Park ended up not being included in Randel’s original plan.
In more modern times, history aficionados have used the metal bolts as a scavenger hunt game of sorts, and since Central Park was not included in Randel’s plan, it presented a particularly enticing location to find one of the historic bolts.
In 2004, surveyor Lemuel Morrison and geographer Reuben Rose-Redwood committed to that search, and eventually discovered one of Randel’s bolts in the park. It is considered the only authentic bolt from the early 19th century in Central Park.
The exact location of the bolt within the park is kept a secret due to worries that it would be stolen or destroyed.
If you do happen to know where the bolt sits, please do not comment with that information on this article. If you’re up for the challenge, spend the day traversing Central Park searching for the historic artifact.
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I know where it is and I’m not telling! And anyway, it’s fun to find it on your own.
There are multiple such bolts throughout the Park. The trick is knowing where to find them. (And that trick is a NYC tour guide or Google!)
These bolts served as Bench Marks and are commonly used by surveyors. Though nowadays they are flat (to avoid causing a trip hazard).