The western half contains a lawn, shaded walkways, and amenities such as a carousel, and is located entirely over an underground structure that houses the library's stacks.

Reservoir Square contained the New York Crystal Palace, which hosted the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in 1853 and burned down in 1858.

[5] Beginning in 1823, Bryant Park was designated a potter's field (a graveyard for the poor) and remained so until 1840, when thousands of bodies were moved to Wards Island.

[5][4] In 1853, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations with the New York Crystal Palace, featuring thousands of exhibitors, took place in the park.

[6][10] The square was used for military drills during the American Civil War, and was the site of some of the New York City draft riots of July 1863, when the Colored Orphan Asylum at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street was burned down.

[21] The architects of the building, Carrère and Hastings, also planned to convert the western border along Sixth Avenue into a pedestrian arcade with a flower market, while the central portion of Bryant Park would have housed sculptures and statues.

[22] In addition, 42nd Street was widened in 1910, necessitating the relocation of the fence on Bryant Park's northern border and the removal of plants there.

[25][26][27] Due to its central location in Midtown Manhattan, several transit lines and infrastructure projects were also built around Bryant Park.

[4][43] The subway tunnel ran 35 feet (11 m) below ground level with a station at the eastern edge of the park, at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.

[52] That November, Manhattan parks commissioner Walter R. Herrick formally notified Sears that the replica had to be torn down, because he did not approve of its proposed conversion into a Great Depression relief center.

[57] In February 1934, under the leadership of newly appointed parks commissioner Robert Moses, work was started on Simpson's plan.

[66] Outdoor summer concerts in Bryant Park were started in 1948 by Philip Lieson Miller, a musicologist at the New York Public Library.

[68] On October 15, 1969, forty thousand people attended a rally in Bryant Park as part of the nationwide Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam.

[80] By the 1960s, Bryant Park had entered a state of deterioration, due to a lack of maintenance and its location in a business district with few nighttime activities.

[89] Another initiative, the Bryant Park Steering Committee, was created in 1977 as a partnership between local businesses and the City University of New York.

[90] More New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers were added, and District Attorney Robert Morgenthau agreed to process arrests in Bryant Park more quickly.

[95] The Bryant Park Restoration Corporation was founded in 1980 by Dan Biederman, along with Andrew Heiskell, chairman of Time Inc. and the New York Public Library.

[100] In 1983, HBO's president, Frank Biondi, gave Heiskell a $100,000 check just before the company moved into new headquarters at 1100 Avenue of the Americas, adjacent to the park.

[102] Restaurateur Warner LeRoy was to operate the eatery, and he planned to build an 80-foot-tall (24 m), 10,500-square-foot (980 m2) glass café on the park's east side adjacent to the library.

[103] In addition, the park would include four smaller food kiosks, a reflecting pool and water fountain, and a dedicated security team.

[106] LeRoy withdrew from the project in 1986 due to this opposition, saying that he feared that the constant reviews of the plan would bring the proposed structure to "mediocrity".

[108] Following LeRoy's withdrawal from the proposed Bryant Park café, the BPRC created a new plan with multiple smaller restaurant spaces.

[120] In June 1991, the city and BPRC reached an agreement to reopen the western section of Bryant Park on summer weekdays.

[150] By the early 2010s, investors were purchasing buildings around Bryant Park south of 42nd Street as part of a small real estate boom.

[2]: 2  A raised terrace on the eastern side of the lawn, which dates to the construction of the library's main branch, is paved with gray flagstones and red brick.

The carousel has a diameter of 22 feet (6.7 m), weighs 12,000 pounds (5,400 kg), and contains 14 animal casts, of which 12 are capable of moving vertically.

Following the 2017 renovation, the restrooms contained rotating artworks selected from a collection of 225 works, as well as fresh flowers, classical music, attendants, and automatic toilets and faucets.

[184] Started as an initiative by the New York Public Library, the Reading Room provided the jobless with a place to interact and share ideas without having to pay money or show identification.

[172] In September 2016, Bryant Park Corporation announced market makers Urbanspace as the new operator for the Holiday Shops, which grew from 80 boutiques in 2002 to over 170 in 2018.

[214] Bryant Park and the New York Public Library Main Branch were jointly listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1966.