Inwood Hill Park

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Picture of Inwood Hill Park and the Henry Hudson Bridge

Inwood Hill Park is a city-owned and maintained public park in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It stretches along the Hudson River from Dyckman Street to the northern tip of the island. Inwood Park's densely folded, glacially scoured topography contains the largest remaining forest land on Manhattan Island. Unlike other parks in Manhattan, Inwood Hill Park is largely natural (non-landscaped). It is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

As the name suggests, large areas of the park are hills, mostly wooded. Many foot and bike paths criss-cross it, connecting across Dyckman Street to Fort Tryon Park and the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway. The park also contains three children's playgrounds; baseball and soccer fields; and tennis and basketball courts. All these facilities are popular with people from the neighborhood for both organized leagues (including the local Little League) and more casual games. The Inwood Hill Nature Center at the north end of the park is both a location for educational programs and the local headquarters of the Urban Park Rangers.

The area of the park along the Harlem River includes a small salt marsh that attracts large numbers of waterbirds. These waterfowl can be studied further via educational programs held at the Nature Center at the north end of the property. Mallards, Canada Geese, and Herring Gulls are year-round residents, using both the water and the nearby lawns and ballfields. Many wading birds and waterfowl pass through on the Spring and Fall migrations, and herons and cormorants often spend the summer.

The woods also support a wide variety of birds, including common species such as Blue Jays and Cardinals. Birds of prey that breed in the park include Red-tailed Hawks and owls. A five-year project that began in Summer 2002 is attempting to reintroduce the Bald Eagle to Manhattan using hacking boxes in the park and eaglets brought in from the midwest. In the first summer, three of the four introduced eaglets fledged successfully; three or four fledged each year of the program.^[1] As of 2007, none had returned to nest in Manhattan, but most of the eagles raised in the park are too young to be nesting.

An orphanage was located high on a bluff in what is now Inwood Hill Park in the nineteenth century. The site today includes a small paved area and park benches, with no trace of the building. At least three fresh water springs arise in the park. One was used for drinking water by the workers who constructed the Henry Hudson Bridge. The site where a wandering band of Indians from the Bronx "sold" Manhattan to the Dutch is marked by a large rock and a plaque in Inwood Hill Park. Until the 1960s the base of the tree under which this transaction took place was still to be seen, surrounded by a large iron fence, but as it rotted, this was removed and the boulder and plaque replaced it.

The park covers 196 acres (793,000 m²). The Henry Hudson Parkway and Amtrak railroad tracks run through it, and at its northern end the Henry Hudson Bridge links Manhattan to the Bronx. Though the park does not support large wild mammals, the local wildlife does include raccoons and skunks as well as the usual city rodents. Both locals and people from outside the neighborhood fish from the riverbank at the north end of the park.

The park's western boundary is the Hudson River. The southern boundary is Dyckman Street. From Dyckman to 204 Street the eastern boundary is Payson Avenue. From 204 to 215 Street the eastern boundary is Seaman Avenue. From 215 Street to the park's end at 218 Street the eastern boundary is Indian Road.