Fort Tryon Park is a public park located in the Hudson Heights, Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods of the borough ofManhattan in New York City. The 67 acres (27 ha) park is situated on a ridge in Upper Manhattan, with a commanding view of the Hudson River, the George Washington Bridge, the New Jersey Palisades and the Harlem River. It extends from West 190th Street in the south to Riverside Drive at Dyckman Street 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 name Chquaesgeck by the local Lenape tribe, and was called Lange Bergh (Long Hill) by Dutch settlers until late in the 17th century.It was the location where the Battle of Fort Washington was fought in the American Revolutionary War, but it was, and remained, sparsely populated. By the turn of the 20th century, it was the location of large country estates.
The park was the creation of philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who bought up several of the estates beginning in 1917 in order to create it. He engaged the Olmsted Brothers firm – formed by the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted, step-brothers John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. – to design the park, and gave it to the city in 1931; James W. Dawson created the planting plan.The park was completed in 1935.
Rockefeller also bought sculptor George Gray Barnard’s collection of medieval art and gave to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which from 1934 to 1939 built The Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park to house it. The Cloisters, which was designed by Charles Collens, incorporates several medieval buildings that were purchased in Europe, brought to the United States, and reassembled, often stone by stone. It is home to the Unicorn Tapestries.
Fort Tryon Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and was designated a New York City Scenic Landmark in 1983.
