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Fort Washington Park

Fort Washington Park runs along the Hudson River from the North end of Riverside Park at 155th Street, under the George Washington Bridge and up to Inwood Hill Park at Dyckman Street.

Fort Washington was a fort built during the Revolutionary War that was actually located a few block to the east of Fort Washington Park at the highest point in Manhattan in what is now Bennett Park.

The Fort Washington Link is a 13 acre park between 155th and 158th streets that connects Riverside Park and Fort Washington Park along the Hudson River. This area is landfill created during the West Side Improvement Project (1934-1937) with the dirt and rock that was excavated to create the underground rail line beneath Riverside Park. As commercial water traffic decreased through the years, four waterfront piers in this area were abandoned and the area served as a largely unimproved road salt truck refill area. The area was turned over to the Parks Department in 1989 and a 1997 allocation of two million dollars resulted in the 1999 project that converted the area to parkland opened in late 2000.

The park is also distinctive as a filter for runoff from the Henry Hudson Parkway. The Fort Washington Link design incorporates an underground trench running parallel to the edge of the highway. This trench catches rainwater from downspouts and directs it through layers of porous materials, beginning with a layer of rounded gravel and ending with activated charcoal. This filtering process removes pollution, particularly hydrocarbons and oils, and passes clean water into the river.

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