Springtime in Fort Tryon Park, New York City.

Click on any image to get the full sized view.

Fort Tryon Park lies at the northern end of Fort Washington Avenue. It is situated upon the top of a rocky ridge which runs north-south through Washington Heights. The ridge starts at about 181st street and terminates at Dyckman street; the ridge's abrupt cliffs give the park visitor commanding views of the low-lands to the east, as well as across the Hudson River to the New Jersey Palisades. Of Fort Tryon Park, the New York City Guide (Federal Writer's Project, 1939) says

Fort Tryon Park is one of the most beautiful public parks of America -- landscaped with trees, lawns, terraces, rock gardens, paved walks, and many benches, all cleverly ordered in harmonious composition. The precision of its design is explicitly urban. The views from its heights are perhaps the finest Manhattan offers, for they sweep mile after mile of the Hudson and the Palisades, and, to the east, range across the lowlands of Inwood. At the sourthern entrance to the park, near Fort Washington Aveune, a large sloping rock garden forms an approach to the stone ramparts marking the site of old Fort Tryon, built in the summer of 1776 and taken in the fall of the same year by the Hessians. The landscaping was done, appropriately, by Frederick Law Olmsted, son of the proposer of the park plan for Inwood.

The Park's sixty-two acres include the grounds of the former C. K. G. Billings estate. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., bought the property in 1909 for $1,700,000, gave it to the city in 1930, and spent $3,600,000 improving it. The gift was in accordance with an agreement between Mr. Rockefeller and the city whereby the eastern ends of Sixty-fourth and Sixty-eighth Streets were closed and conveyed to Rockefeller Institute.

The park opened to the public in 1935, and received a good review from Lewis Mumford , one of America's leading intellectuals of the period. Today, Fort Tryon Park remains one of the most beautiful spots in New York. It is now a favorite spot for wedding and birthday parties. On a nice summer day you can find scores of families having picnics on one of the many lawns throughout the park.

We begin our tour at Margaret Corbin Circle, laying at the end of Fort Washington Avenue. Margaret Corbin was a hero of the American Revolution; her particular act of bravery was to stand firm against a Hessian advance on one of the hills in the Park. When her husband was killed by enemy fire, she took his gun and continued firing on the advancing Hessians until she, too, was badly wounded.

The park prominade is flanked by the two stone pillars visible on the left portion of the photo.

The gateway to Fort Tryon Park at Margret Corbin Circle.

The park lies high atop a cliff flanking the Hudson river. Through the trees, on the other side of the river lie the cliffsides of the Jersey Palisades.

View of park, Hudson river, and Palisades.

The park is renowned for its Heather Garden. In the Heather Garden stands the sign shown in the middle photo. It says "Let no one say, and say it to your shame, that all was beauty here, until you came". This sign was a beloved part of the park when the park opened, but somehow disappeared many decades ago with the passage of time. About one year ago, the city re-installed the sign, and its admonishion is now again a beloved feature of Fort Tryon Park.

The Heather Garden.	The famous admonishing sign.	Looking south at the Heather Garden.

Continue with the tour of Fort Tryon Park.

Return to the neighborhood tour.

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