Fort Tryon Park

Fort Tryon Park
(2013)
Location	Hudson Heights/Inwood, Manhattan, New York
Coordinates	40°51′39″N 73°55′57″W / 40.86083°N 73.93250°W / 40.86083; -73.93250
Area	67.21 acres (27 ha)
Elevation	268 feet (82 m)
Created	1935
Designer	Olmsted Brothers
Etymology	Sir William Tryon
Operated by	NYC Parks
Open	6 a.m. to 1 a.m.
Status	Open all year
Public transit access	Subway: to 190th Street or Dyckman Street Bus: M4, M98, M100, Bx7
Website	Official website
Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
New York City Landmark
Location	Bounded by 190th Street, Cabrini Boulevard, 192nd Street, Bennett Avenue, Broadway, Riverside Drive, and Henry Hudson Parkway Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates	40°51′39″N 73°55′57″W / 40.86083°N 73.93250°W / 40.86083; -73.93250
Area	66.5 acres (26.9 ha)
Built	1935
Architect	Olmsted Brothers[2] (Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., James W. Dawson)
Architectural style	Romanesque
NRHP reference No.	78001870[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	December 19, 1978
Designated NYCL	The Cloisters: March 19, 1974[3] Fort Tryon Park: September 20, 1983[4]

Fort Tryon Park is a public park located in the Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The 67-acre (27 ha) park is situated on a ridge in Upper Manhattan, close to the Hudson River to the west. It extends mostly from 192nd Street in the south to Riverside Drive in the north, and from Broadway in the east to the Henry Hudson Parkway in the west. The main entrance to the park is at Margaret Corbin Circle, at the intersection of Fort Washington Avenue and Cabrini Boulevard.

The area was known by the local Lenape tribe as Chquaesgeck and by Dutch settlers as Lange Bergh (Long Hill). During the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Fort Washington was fought at the site of the park on November 16, 1776. The area remained sparsely populated during the 19th century, but by the turn of the 20th century, it was the location of large country estates.

Beginning in January 1917, philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr., bought up the "Tryon Hall" estate of Chicago industrialist C. K. G. Billings and several others to create Fort Tryon Park. He engaged the Olmsted Brothers firm to design the park and hired James W. Dawson to create the planting plan. Rockefeller gave the land to the city in 1931, after two prior attempts to do so were unsuccessful, and the park was completed in 1935. Rockefeller also bought sculptor George Gray Barnard's collection of medieval art and gave it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which from 1935 to 1939 built the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park to house the collection.

The park is built on a high formation of Manhattan schist with igneous intrusions and glacial striations from the last ice age. The park's design included extensive plantings of various flora in the park's many gardens, including the Heather Garden, which was restored in the 1980s. Besides the gardens and the Cloisters, the park has extensive walking paths and meadows, with views of the Hudson and Harlem Rivers. Fort Tryon Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 19, 1978 and was designated a New York City scenic landmark in 1983.