5. Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch

Eastern Parkway was designed to be revolutionary, an American Champs-Élysées. By 1866, Eastern Parkway was in the works as the world’s first parkway, meant to mirror the far-stretching, spacious boulevards of Western European cities by urban planners like Georges-Eugène Haussmann of Paris. Olmstead originally designed Grand Army as a humble square meant to physically separate the park from the chaotic city outside its gates. Now, the grand entrance pays homage to American deities like Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy in the statue. The site figures largely in the Netflix show Grand Army.

The 1892 addition of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch, celebrating the Union victory in the Civil War, adds to the Parisian feel. Designed by John H. Duncan, who also planned Grant’s Tomb, it mirrors the Arc de Triomphe.