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 city park is illegal, but San Francisco has a tradition of turning a blind eye to infractions for official or unofficial events." The police department has stated that they are not naïve enough to attempt to catch all the people smoking marijuana on the hill, but as Police Chief Greg Suhr said, "There are plenty of other things that come with it that we will not have." A diverse collection of plants from all over the world can be found in Golden Gate Park. Acacias, like the Sydney golden wattle from Australia, were some of the first plants planted by