Washington Heights & Inwood Online
Parks
WaHI is home to over 620 acres worth of parkland, more than any other neighborhood in Manhattan, with gorgeous views of the Hudson River, the Palisades, and the George Washington Bridge.
Inwood
Hill Park has the only remaining natural forest in Manhattan,
and is the mythic location of the first real estate transaction in New
York — Peter Minuit’s 1626 “purchase” of the island
from the Native Americans for $24 worth of “Diffles duffel cloth,
Kittles kettles, axes, hoes, wampum, drilling awls, Jews harps, and diverse
other wares” (according to a copy of Minuit’s deal). The park
also has small caves left behind by the Hudson River glacier, which were
used by the Weekquaeskeek tribe for shelter.
Fort Tryon Park is home to The Cloisters, a beautiful medieval monastery that houses the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s medieval collection. The building was reconstructed from stones and artifacts from French monastic ruins brought to the States by American sculptor George Grey Barnard, and later purchased and assembled as a building in the park by John D. Rockefeller in the 1930s. The park’s lower terrace (below the Heather Garden) possesses one of the most glorious views of the George Washington Bridge.
Fort Washington Park runs along the Hudson River waterfront from 158th Street to just beyond the George Washington Bridge at 181st Street. It has many paths with benches where visitors can sit and contemplate in quietude the spectacular views of the river, the bridge, and the Palisades in New Jersey. The Little Red Light House, made famous by Hildegarde H. Swift’s classic children’s book, is located under the bridge.
Highbridge Park is on the east side of WaHI and runs on the hill above the Harlem River Drive. It’s named after High Bridge, the oldest bridge connecting two New York City boroughs, which was originally an elevated stone aqueduct à la ancient Rome, designed to bring water from the Croton River to the reservoir down in Central Park.
For information on other parks in WaHI, see the Parks & Gardens resource page.