Golden Gate Park most-visited city park in the United States after Central Park in New York City, Lincoln Park in Chicago, and Balboa and Mission Bay Parks in San Diego. In the 1860s, San Franciscans began to feel the need for a spacious public park similar to Central Park, which was then taking shape in New York City. Golden Gate Park was carved out of unpromising sand and shore dunes that were known as the Outside Lands, in an unincorporated area west of San Francisco's then-current borders. Conceived ostensibly for recreation, the underlying purpose of the park was housing development and the westward
Golden Gate Park of cycling. The cycling track is still alive, with a large amount of time-trial races held every cycling season. Recently a cyclist in 2013 has set a record in the park by riding a total of 188.5 miles on the Polo Field velodrome, circling it 279 times for a total of 10 hours moving. Archery was first organized in Golden Gate Park in 1881. However, there was not a devoted range specifically for archery until around 1933. In 1936, during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, many parts of Golden Gate Park, including the archery range, were improved as part of the