Overview & visitor information
Columbus Circle marks the intersection of Broadway, Eighth Avenue, Central Park South and Central Park West. The circular traffic space was included in the nineteenth-century street plan as a turnabout for horse-drawn vehicles and now forms a prominent southwest gateway to Central Park.
Gaetano Russo's monument, dedicated in 1892, places a marble figure of Christopher Columbus above a tall column decorated with ships' prows and maritime reliefs. Its presence is historically prominent and publicly contested, reflecting continuing debate over commemoration, colonization and Indigenous history in civic space.
A 2005 redesign created a central pedestrian plaza with fountains, planting and seating inside the traffic ring. The Maine Monument, Deutsche Bank Center, Museum of Arts and Design, subway entrances and the beginning of Broadway's diagonal route make the circle an unusually dense junction of landscape, commerce, transport and monumentality.
