Not to brag, but does YOUR childhood backyard get more than 25 million visitors a year?

Growing up in a tiny apartment on the Upper East Side, I thought of Central Park as my own 843-acre bit of green in the midst of Manhattan's urban jungle. I spent my formative years attending nature programs in Belvedere Castle, ice skating at Lasker and Wollman rinks (New Yorkers leave the Rockefeller Center rink to the tourists) and running around the Reservoir during gym class. And most Junes in the 1980s, we'd celebrate my birthday on what my friends and I considered our own personal turf.

So I know Central Park. And while most visitors are familiar with its more legendary attractions — its carriage rides, summer concerts, Shakespeare in the Park and that bastion of chintz, Tavern on the Green — believe me: With 150 acres of water, 250 acres of lawns, 136 acres of woodlands and 58 miles of pedestrian pathways, there's plenty more to do and see there.