When I was walking through High Bridge Park while exploring Washington Heights for my blog, ‘MywalkinManhattan.com’, I came across the Water Tower inside the park right next to the pool that was closed for the season and the Highbridge Walkway, which used to be the old aqueduct that used to bring fresh water into New York City.
The Highbridge Water Tower when I walked “The Great Saunter” through the neighborhood in 2023.
The Highbridge Water Tower is nearly 200 feet tall and stands around 174th Street in Washington Heights. The tower used to hold a 47,000-gallon water tank that was fed by the Croton Aqueduct. The Highbridge next to it was the last leg of the aqueduct’s forty-mile journey from upstate New York to Manhattan and is the oldest surviving bridge in New York City (T.M.Rives 2012).
The Highbridge in Highbridge Park
The tower itself was built between 1866-1872 by architect John B. Jervis in the Romanesque Revival and neo-Greco styles and had a seven acre reservoir next to it. It opened in 1872 and was fully working in 1875. In 1949, the Water tower was disconnected from the system. The tower like the rest of the park had sat in disrepair for years and was restored between 1989-1990 (Wiki). The tower is now going through another restoration that should be finished by April of 2021 (NYCParks.com).
When I visited in the park that summer and then again in the Fall, it was behind fencing because it was still unsafe.
Highbridge Park is beautiful in the Spring and Fall but not the safest park in NYC.
Walking the paths of Highbridge Park
Highbridge Park is a wonderful park to walk around in in the middle of the day during the warmer months. I would not venture around it later at night or in the winter months. It can be a bit desolate and when you walk around the paths by the river with all the abandoned cars and graffiti can be a bit dangerous. I got some looks when walking around.
This was at the bottom of the bridge just off the path.
Open: Seasonal when school is open and only at certain times of the year
Fee: Free-check in with the security guard
The High School of Art & Design at 245 East 54th Street
I passed the High School of Art & Design when I was touring the Turtle Bay neighborhood in Manhattan for my blog, MywalkinManhattan.com. The school was open during the Spring Break and some of the kids were in the school were taking classes. The security guard let me walk around and then he asked me would I like the see the art gallery. I said sure and I was able to explore the John B. Kenny Gallery.
John B. Kenny was Ceramist and an administrator who saved the school and created the school with three other artists in 1936. He founded the school with artists Henry Cordes, Mildred Harston and Jerod Magon.
The Mission of the High School of Art & Design is to inspire, educate and fully prepare our gifted students to become exceptional artists. Through a unified curriculum that incorporates a broad spectrum of disciplines integrating art, technology and academics, our students are prepared to go on to college and careers with industry-standard mastery in the major of their choice.
With a commitment to promoting strong ethical values and professional demeanor, we strive to foster a sense of community among our students, staff and parents. We are dedicated to engendering student’s productive, creative and innovative participation in the world of visual arts as concerned and caring citizens of the global community (School Mission Statement).
The Gallery is full with Alumni and student art and it revolves at various times of the year. It is a nice size gallery full of interesting art. There was a combination of sculpture, painting and paper sculpture in the gallery.
The John B. Kenny Gallery is very interesting
I was only able to spend a short time in the gallery but it is a hidden gem tucked in the side of the main entrance and just talk to the security guards at the front of the school and they will let you tour on your own.
I love Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan. It is one of the most beautiful parks in New York City. It is a park of rolling hills, stone paths that hug the hills, interesting garden that are ablaze when in season, shady tree sitting areas and is home to many playgrounds and the Cloisters Museum which is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has so much to offer a visitor coming into Manhattan from exploring the woods that line the path to looking at interesting art at the museum. This 67 acre park is one of the interesting and complex in New York City.
A city view of the beauty of the park by the Hudson River
The view from The Cloisters by the Hudson River
When you enter the park from Inwood by Broadway, you enter through Ann Loftus Park which is named after a local community leader and is one of the popular parks with kids and families in the area. In the summer months, the fountains and water fixtures are going strong and the kids run around them while the parents lie under shade trees talking to one another.
When taking the path from Ann Loftus Park and winding up the hills of woods and rock formations is the Hudson River looming in the distance with spectacular views of the Palisades and the large cliffs of Fort Lee, NJ on the other side.
The bathrooms in Ann Loftus Playground
The history of the park
Anne Susan Cahill Loftus biography:
At the top of hill like a crown jewel is the Medieval Galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cloisters Museum. Filled with all the Met’s collections of Religious and Medieval art set into themes of old churches, stained glass windows, flowered courtyards and vistas of the river, it is the perfect place to wonder around.
As you pass the Cloisters and walk further in to the park, there is still so much more to see and do. The Linden Terrace overlooks the Hudson River with its large shade trees over head and its stone benches to sit and just look in the distance or read a book. This was the site of the original Fort Tryon and is the highest location in the park.
Linden Terrace is a nice place to relax and read a book
The flowers by the Linden Terrace
Further down in the other entrance of the park is Heather Garden, a large path of flowers , bushes and trees with benches lining it. The garden was the Olmstead Brothers when the park was taking shape and is a beautiful place to walk in the Spring and Summer months when the park is in full bloom.
The stairs leading to the Linden Terrace
The plaque for Fort Tryon
The anniversary plaque
The Stan Michels Promenade
The Heather Garden in the front
The Heather Garden was recently remodeled to follow the original design by the Olmstead Brothers.
The Heather Gardens
The Heather Gardens in full bloom
The Gardens facing the George Washington Bridge
The Gardens in full view
There is even a terrace restaurant in the middle of the park, the New Leaf Cafe (See review on TripAdvisor-Closed in 2018) which sits off to the side of the Corbin Circle on the other side of the park. The food is over-rated and very expensive. The last time I ate there the menu was pretty standard. It is a great to take out of towners who want a view of something. It is not worth the trip. The views are nice and in the summer months it is pretty but the food and service are standard.
The New Leaf Cafe in Fort Tyron Park (Closed in 2018)
The park has so much to offer in all months of the year especially in the Spring and Summer.
The entrance to Fort Tryon Park
Cabrini Woods Nature Sanctuary in the front of the park
The Cabrini Sanctuary in the Spring 2024
History of Fort Tryon Park:
The area was known by the local Lenape Indians as Chquaesgeck and by the Dutch settlers as Lange Bergh (Long Hill). During the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Fort Washington was fought on this site. The park is built on a high formation of Manhattan schist with igneous intrusions and glacial striations from the last Ice Age (Wiki).
The gardens in the Fort Tryon Park
John D. Rockefeller Jr. bought up most the land in 1917, which by that point had been old estates, to create Fort Tryon Park. He hired the Olmstead Brothers firm, under the direction of Fredrick Law Olmstead Jr., the son of the designer of Central Park, to design the park and James W. Dawson to create a planting plan. Mr. Rockefeller also bought the collection of Medieval art from sculptor George Gray Barnard and it was the cornerstone of The Cloisters Museum which was built in 1939 (Wiki).
The Fort Tryon gardens in full bloom
The stairs in the park
Through the years the park has seen its ups and downs especially in the 1970’s and 80’s with the decline of finances in New York City. There were extensive renovations when finances got better in the late 90’s and parts of the park were fully renovated. The Fort Tyron Park Trust, a non-profit organization was founded in 1998 to help maintain the park (Wiki).
When I walked through the park on the recent Great Saunter walk in 2025, they rerouted us through the park when the Riverwalk was closed for renovation. The park was in full bloom and it was the most spectacular day for a visit.
The entrance of the park on that sunny afternoon
The beautiful colorful tulips at the entrance of the park
The colorful gardens were in full bloom
Everyone was routed through the park on the way to Inwood Park for our rest stop. What I found strange was that the park was so beautiful in full bloom and people were not stopping to relax and just enjoy the views. The gardens were amazing and so colorful.
I stopped to look at the beautiful rock garden
I thought this was so clever. One of the volunteers made this sign up which was so funny!
We walked through the park on our way through the park on the way to Inwood Park.
I had planned to go out to Punxsutawney, PA again for Groundhog’s Day but the weather really turned this year. There was an Arctic Vortex (or whatever they are calling it this week) and the weather plunged in Pennsylvania. It was going to be 20 degrees on Groundhog’s Day (that meant 0 degrees that night) and raining when I would drive home on Sunday and I thought that would be over doing it for me.
I later saw that it did go up to 38 degrees that day in Punxsutawney, higher than expected but the overnight Friday night into Saturday was 4 degrees and sorry but the thought of standing in Gobbler’s Knob for five and a half hours in that weather was too much. I did that in 2016 in 30 degrees and that was bad enough. I will wait until next year.
Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical 