Columbus Circle, Traffic circle at Central Park South, United States
Columbus Circle is a traffic circle at the southwest corner of Central Park in Manhattan, where Broadway, Eighth Avenue, Central Park South and Central Park West meet. At its center stands the Columbus Monument: a fluted light-gray stone column with dark leaf-shaped ornaments along its shaft, topped by a robed figure, rising from a stepped polygonal base in a plaza ringed by water jets and a curving pool.
The roundabout opened in October 1892 when the column by sculptor Gaetano Russo was installed. In 1905 William Phelps Eno introduced the first organized circular traffic system in the city here.
The circle and the surrounding neighborhood are named after the Christopher Columbus monument at its center, a column by sculptor Gaetano Russo placed here in 1892. The name was also used for the roundabout's earlier designations, such as "The Circle", before the monument gave it its present name.
The site serves as the reference point for measuring all highway distances from New York and offers several subway entrances beneath the plaza. Pedestrians can reach the central island through crosswalks controlled by traffic lights.
The column in the center is the only milestone in the city from which all official road distances are measured. This tradition makes the plaza the symbolic zero point of the New York road network.
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