Battery Park is located on the southern most tip of Lower Manhattan and is named for the artillery battery of approximately 30 cannons, built to defend the harbor of New York City while it still was a British and Dutch colony.

Battery Park was the center of Evacuation Day celebrations, which commemorated the departure of the last British troops in the United States after the American Revolutionary war. The modern day park was built on a landfill during the 19th century and is now an escape from highly developed and chaotic lower Manhattan.

The skyscrapers occupy most of the area and stop at the beginning of the park. Within the park lies Castle Clinton, a fort built in the beginning of the 1800’s on a small island then called West Battery, which was subsequently united with the mainland thanks to the landfill.

Many celebratory monuments are located within the park, among which is the statue of the Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano.