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Highbridge Park & Coogan's Bluff

The long, forested park along the Harlem River on Washington Heights' eastern edge, home to the High Bridge, the Highbridge Water Tower, and the cliffs of Coogan's Bluff.

Roughly W 155th St north to Dyckman St, between Edgecombe Ave and Amsterdam Ave on the west and the Harlem River on the east. The High Bridge and Water Tower are near W 172nd St.

View north from the Highbridge Water Tower across a baseball field in Highbridge Park toward the apartment towers of upper Washington Heights.
Jim.henderson (opens in a new tab)CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab)
The Highbridge Water Tower above Highbridge Park
Jsobel123 (opens in a new tab)CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)
The High Bridge walkway leading east across the Harlem River to the Bronx
Famartin (opens in a new tab)CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)
Highbridge Park's wooded slope seen from the water tower
Jim.henderson (opens in a new tab)CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab)
The John T. Brush Stairway on Coogan's Bluff near W 157th Street
Delaywaves (opens in a new tab)CC BY 3.0 (opens in a new tab)
The Polo Grounds seen from Coogan's Bluff in 1909
Bain News Service, publisher (opens in a new tab)Public domain
A fireboat salute on the Harlem River at the High Bridge reopening in 2015
Beyond My Ken (opens in a new tab)CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)

Highbridge Park is a narrow band of woods, cliffs, and ball fields that runs 2.25 miles along the Harlem River, according to NYC Parks. It sits below the avenues on the Fort George and Jumel Terrace sides of Washington Heights, so it overlaps with those areas on the map, but it has its own landmarks and its own way in: the High Bridge to the Bronx, the Highbridge Water Tower, the Highbridge Pool and Recreation Center, and mountain-bike trails.

NYC Parks says the park was assembled piecemeal between 1867 and the 1960s. The northern section, Fort George Hill, covers the site of the old Fort George and of the Fort George amusement park that opened in 1895 and burned in 1913. NYC Parks says it acquired the cliffside from W 181st St to Dyckman St in 1902. At the southern end, Coogan’s Bluff is the escarpment that runs roughly from W 155th to W 160th St between Edgecombe Ave and the river, according to Wikipedia; the Polo Grounds, the Giants’ ballpark until 1957, stood in the bottomland below it until 1964.

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