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Washington Square Park Review
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Washington Square Park 
- Address: 5th Ave. between Waverly Pl. and 4th St., Greenwich Village, New York, NY | Map It
- Category: Squares
- Location: Greenwich Village
Fodor's Review:
NYU students, street musicians, skateboarders, jugglers, chess players, and those just watching the grand opera of it all generate a maelstrom of activity in this physical and spiritual heart of the Village. The 9 1/2-acre park had inauspicious beginnings as a cemetery, principally for yellow fever victims -- an estimated 10,000-22,000 bodies lie below. At one time, plans to renovate the park called for the removal of the bodies; however, local resistance prevented this from happening. In the early 1800s the park was a parade ground and the site of public executions; bodies dangled from a conspicuous Hanging Elm that still stands at the northwest corner of the square. Today, playgrounds attract parents with tots in tow, dogs go leash-free inside the popular dog runs, and everyone else seems drawn toward the large central fountain.
The triumphal European-style Washington Memorial Arch stands at the square's north end, marking the start of 5th Avenue. In 1889 Stanford White designed a wood-and-papier-mâché arch, originally situated a half block north, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of George Washington's presidential inauguration. The arch was reproduced in Tuckahoe marble in 1892, and the statues -- Washington as General Accompanied by Fame and Valor on the left, and Washington as Statesman Accompanied by Wisdom and Justice on the right -- were added in 1916 and 1918, respectively.
- Metro: A, B, C, D, E, F, V to West 4th St.
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