By Time Out New York editors

By Time Out New York editors

If you've passed through some of Manhattan's best parks, you've probably walked over thousands of dead bodies.

Washington Square Park, Union Square, Madison Square Park and Bryant Park are all built over Potter’s fields, an arcane form of a mass grave that was once used to entomb poor people. We met up with Greg Young and Tom Meyers of The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast, who broke down the history of burial grounds in Manhattan and the parks that now sit on top of them.

Watch the video above to discover the spooky side of some of NYC’s most popular public spaces.

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