At that moment, the city of New York was about to begin converting 840 acres of hayfields and scrubland into the long-awaited Central Park. It was an enormous site, stretching nearly 2,5 miles from top to bottom (A)________ Frederick Olmsted, in some desperation, applied for the job of superintendent of the workforce and got it. He was thirty-five years old, (B)________

Becoming the superintendent of a municipal park was, for someone who had enjoyed as much success as he had, a humbling comedown, particularly (C)________ For one thing, in those days it wasn’t actually central at all. ‘Uptown’ Manhattan was still nearly two miles to the south. (D)________– a forlorn expanse of abandoned quarries and ‘pestiferous swamps’, in the words of one observer. (E)________ seemed almost ludicrously ambitious.

(F)________ – which was, not incidentally, always called the Central Park, with a definite article, in its early days. A prize of $2,000 awaited the winning entry and Olmsted need the money.