In 1808, engineer John Randel Jr. planted metal bolts at nearly 1,000 proposed intersections across New York City — the physical markers that created Manhattan’s grid. In 2004, surveyors discovered one of those bolts in Central Park, the only authentic early-19th-century Randel bolt known in the park. The catch: nobody will tell you where it is. The Central Park Conservancy and the parks department keep the location secret for fear someone will steal or damage it, and the West Side Rag — which broke the story — explicitly asked readers not to reveal it in comments, instead issuing a challenge: spend the day traversing the 900-acre park searching for the historic artifact. Gothamist’s James Ramsay took the bait, spent two sweaty hours combing the west side with only a close-up photo, and came up empty — but as he writes, that’s sort of the point: New York isn’t a museum of itself, and the city rewards you with a million things to appreciate if you let it. The hunt is free, self-directed, and open-ended — a genuinely fun scavenger hunt with 218 years of history attached.
The 218-Year-Old Secret Bolt Hidden in Central Park
Somewhere in Central Park sits one of John Randel Jr.'s 1808 survey bolts that mapped Manhattan's grid. The location is secret — and hunting for it is a free afternoon challenge.