“The Park has suffered great injury,” Olmsted lamented. Sweeny had run up $1.5 million in debts and had entered into another $500,000 worth of bogus contracts. Olmsted set to work razing the zoo structures that had been built on the North Meadow. (The familiar zoo that exists at the southern end of the park is a different, non-Tweed, creation.) He planted thousands of shrubs to replace ones that had been grubbed out by careless workers.
