Fort Washington


	New York's Isolated Park on the Hudson Fort Washington Park provides an escape from urban life, but navigating to the park around rail and automotive thruways reveals a patchwork of unfinished urban plans. by Rob Reid March 2024 Nestled between the Hudson River and the ceaseless flow of automotive traffic on the Henry Hudson Expressway, Fort Washington Park offers space for social gatherings, team sports, and solitary escapes from the concrete urban jungle above cliffs to the east. But decades of half-baked urban designs isolate the park even from neighboring residents, with access points weaving through deserted tunnels and along busy parkways. Entry to Fort Washington Park at 176th Street via the Haven Park Underpass.


	Discussion about improving access to the park, particularly extending the riverfront trail to the north, dates back over a century. In 1917, the city spurned John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s conditional offer of the land that's now Fort Tryon park. Citing financial reasons, the city refused to honor Rockefeller's condition that the park be connected to Fort Washington Park. More recently, the city estimated it would cost $22 million to essentially transform the informal trail to an official trail- a cost elevated by a need for landfill supporting a paved, bike-friendly trail. As recently as 2017, the nonprofit New York Economic Development Corporation conceptualized development of a trail built above the river, promising community engagement in the planning process only "as funding becomes available." Conceptual Rendering of Manhattan Waterfront Greenway. Image: City of New York. To this day, limited crossings over conflicting expressway and rail routes restricts access to Fort Washington Park. Perhaps some day the city will invest in improving this access. For now, the park's isolation may be part of the its charm. See GitHub repository for methodology, as well as my Columbia Lede class presentation for the back story on discovering the unofficial trail. The scrolling map was adapted in part from Chris Whong's Mapbox Storytelling template.

New York's Isolated Park on the Hudson