Brackenridge Park, Urban park and historic district in San Antonio, United States.
Brackenridge Park is a 343.7-acre (139.1 ha) public park on San Antonio's Broadway Corridor, just north of downtown. Its grounds hold the San Antonio Zoo, the Witte Museum, the Japanese Tea Gardens, the Sunken Garden Theater and the Tuesday Musical Club, plus baseball fields, playgrounds, pavilions and walking trails. A 2 ft narrow-gauge train, the San Antonio Zoo Eagle, has run since 1956.
The land was donated in 1899 by George Washington Brackenridge, after the area had served military purposes during the Civil War. This donation marked the beginning of the space as a public park for the community.
The grounds preserve traces of thousands of years of human settlement, including Native American artifacts and early Spanish irrigation systems. Visitors can see these historical connections while walking through the park.
The park lies along the San Antonio River just north of downtown, with the San Antonio Zoo, Witte Museum and Japanese Tea Gardens inside its grounds. A 2 ft narrow gauge train, the San Antonio Zoo Eagle, has run since 1956. Walking trails, baseball fields, playgrounds and pavilions fill the rest of the 343.7 acres.
Two historical water channels from the 1700s, the Alamo Madre and Upper Labor acequias, still run through the grounds and show how early irrigation worked. These canal systems made the first farming in the region possible and remain partly visible today.
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