From a vast landfill now indelibly memorialized in The Great Gatsby, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park has evolved into the most vital of New York City parks. More than 800 acres in the geographic center of Queens, the park is an unprecedented reflection of the city’s sprawling, layered history and rich cultural heritage.

Built for the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs, the park still retains the spirit of the events. The Unisphere, a towering steel globe, is the defining landmark—both a tribute to the hopefulness of the Cold War years and a popular selfie location. Nearby, the crumbling towers of the New York State Pavilion stand as bittersweet reminders of the forward-looking dreams that never quite materialized.

Far from a relic, Flushing Meadows is the setting for the U.S. Open, a top-tier tennis championship that draws global crowds to this stage at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Cultural icons like the Queens Museum and the New York Hall of Science anchor the park’s thriving scene, but weekends fill the park’s large fields of green and winding paths with soccer games, picnic barbecues, and congested street vendors.

Flushing Meadows, perhaps more so than most city parks, reflects the character of its people in a very special way. Situated in perhaps America’s most ethnically diverse county, the park is attuned to the rhythm of multilingual chatter, the sounds of music from around the world, and impromptu celebrations that continue from sunrise to sunset.

Generally described in terms of frenetic pace and large scale, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park also has a richer reality: a common ground where various cultures meet, not in theory but in the practice of daily life.