Rambles, The

The Ramble is a landscaped, densely wooded area on the west-central side of Central Park in Manhattan. Designed in the 1850s by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux as a naturalistic wild garden, its winding paths and heavy vegetation made it, from the early 20th century onward, one of the best-known outdoor cruising spots for gay and bisexual men in the United States. Photographer Arthur Tress documented the scene there in 1969, the same year as the Stonewall uprising. The Ramble holds layered queer history as a place of community, pleasure, secrecy, police harassment, and risk. Cruising activity has declined since its mid-century peak but the site remains meaningful in the geography of gay New York.