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Washington Heights, Manhattan
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Washington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the British forces.
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Encyclopedia
Washington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the British forces. During the Battle of Fort Washington, on November 16, 1776, the fort was captured by the British at great cost to the American forces; 130 soldiers were killed or wounded, and an additional 2,700 captured and held as prisoners, many of whom died on prison ships anchored in New York Harbor. The progress of the battle is marked by a series of bronze plaques along Broadway.
Geography
Washington Heights is on the high ridge in Upper Manhattan that rises steeply north of the narrow valley that carries 125th Street to the former ferry landing on the Hudson River. Though the neighborhood was once considered to run as far south as 125th Street, modern usage defines the neighborhood as running north from Harlem (Hamilton Heights) at 155th Street to Inwood, topping out just below Dyckman Street.
Manhattan's highest point
Ten blocks from the northern end of Washington Heights, in its Hudson Heights neighborhood near Pinehurst Avenue and 183rd Street in Bennett Park, is a plaque marking Manhattan's highest natural elevation, 265 ft (80.8 m) above sea level, at what was the location of Fort Washington, the Revolutionary War camp of General George Washington and his troops, from whom Washington Heights takes its name.
Four blocks North of this point is a 32-story building belonging to Yeshiva University of which its topmost floor is at the highest altitude of any NYC fixed structure.
History
In the early 1900s Irish immigrants moved to Washington Heights. European Jews went to Washington Heights to escape Nazism during the 1930s and the 1940s. During the 1950s and 1960s many Greeks moved to Washington Heights; the community was referred to as the "Astoria of Manhattan." As the nickname became widespread, Cubans moved to the area. By the 1980s and 1990s the neighborhood became mostly Dominican. By the 2000s, after years when gangsters ruled a thriving illegal drug trade, urban renewal began. Many Dominicans moved to Morris Heights, University Heights, and other west Bronx neighborhoods. While gentrification is often blamed for rapid changes in the neighborhood, the changes in population mainly reflect the departure of the dominant nationality. As Dominicans left Manhattan for the Bronx, Mexicans and Ecuadorians have taken their place, according to The Latino Data Project of the City University of New York. The proportion of whites in Washington Heights has declined from 18 percent in 1990 to 14 percent in 2005.
Transportation
Washington Heights is connected to Fort Lee, New Jersey via the Othmar Ammann-designed George Washington Bridge. The Pier Luigi Nervi-designed George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal is located at the Manhattan end of the bridge. The Trans-Manhattan Expressway, a portion of Interstate 95, proceeds from the George Washington Bridge in a trench between 178th and 179th Streets. To the east, the Highway leads to the Alexander Hamilton Bridge across the Harlem River to the Bronx and the Cross-Bronx Expressway. The Washington Bridge crosses the Harlem River just north of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge. High Bridge is the oldest Harlem River span still in existence, crossing the river just south of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge. Originally it carried the Croton Aqueduct as part of the New York City water system and later functioned as a pedestrian bridge that has been closed since 1970. It has been recently announced High Bridge will reopen after a 20 million dollar renovation project. Because of their abrupt, hilly topography, pedestrian navigation, particularly in Upper Manhattan and the West Bronx, is facilitated by many step streets .
Subways
Washington Heights is served by the New York City Subway.
On the Eighth Avenue Line ( and ) service is available at the
155th Street,
163rd Street–Amsterdam Avenue,
168th Street station. The C line ends at 168th St.
The A train continues and stops at 175th Street–George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal,
181st Street,
190th Street, Dyckman Street and 207th Street, with Dyckman named for a geological fault that diagonally cuts the island.
Along the Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line, the train has stations at
157th Street,
168th Street,
181st Street, and
191st Street.
Noted sites
Among the Heights' now-vanished riverfront estates was "Minnie's Land", the home of ornithological artist John James Audubon, who is buried as is poet Clement Clark Moore in Trinity Church Cemetery churchyard of the neighborhood's Church of the Intercession (1915), a masterpiece by architect Bertram Goodhue. Columbia University Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, the medical campus and school, respectively, of Columbia University, lie in the area of 168th Street and Broadway, occupying the former site of Hilltop Park, the home of the New York Highlanders (now known as the New York Yankees) from 1903 to 1912. Across the street is the New Balance Track and Field center, the nation's premier indoor track and home to the Track and Field hall of fame.
The best known cultural site and tourist attraction in Washington Heights is The Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park at the northern end of the neighborhood, with spectacular views across the Hudson to the New Jersey Palisades. This branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is devoted to Medieval art and culture, and is located in a medieval-style building, portions of which were purchased in Europe, brought to the United States, and reassembled.
Audubon Terrace, a cluster of five distinguished Beaux Arts institutional buildings, is home to another major, though little-visited museum, The Hispanic Society of America. The Society has the largest collection of works from El Greco and Goya outside of the Museo del Prado, including one of Goya's famous paintings of Cayetana, Duchess of Alba. In September 2007, it commenced a three-year collaboration with the Dia Art Foundation. The campus on Broadway at West 156th Street , also houses The American Academy of Arts and Letters - which holds twice yearly, month-long public exhibitions and Boricua College.
Manhattan's oldest remaining house, the Morris-Jumel Mansion, is located in the landmarked Jumel Terrace Historic District, located between West 160th and West 162nd Street, just east of St. Nicholas Avenue. An AAM-accredited historic house museum, the Mansion interprets the colonial era, the period when General George Washington occupied it during the American Revolutionary War, and the early 19th century in New York.
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated during a speech at the Audubon Ballroom, on Broadway at West 168th Street. The interior of the building was demolished, but the Broadway facade remains, incorporated into one of Columbia's buildings. It is now the home of the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial & Educational Center. Several shops, restaurants and a bookstore occupy the first floor.
At the Hudson's shore, in Fort Washington Park stands the Little Red Lighthouse, a small lighthouse located at the tip of Jeffrey's Hook at the base of the eastern pier of the George Washington Bridge. It was made famous by a 1942 children's book and is the site of a namesake festival in the late summer. A a 5.85-mile recreational swim finishes there in early autumn. It's also a popular place to watch for peregrine falcons.
In film and literature
The Broadway musical In the Heights is set in Washington Heights.
CSI: NY Season 2 Episode 16 Cool Hunter features a man found dead in a playground in Washington Heights.
The film Pride and Glory takes place in the yet to be gentrified streets of Washington Heights.
Parks
see also: New York Restoration Project
Community
Today the majority of the neighborhood's population is still of Dominican birth or descent (the area is sometimes referred to as "Quisqueya Heights"), and Spanish is frequently heard being spoken on the streets. Washington Heights has been the most important base for Dominican accomplishment in political, non-profit, cultural, and athletic arenas in the United States since the 1960s. Most of the neighborhood businesses are Dominican owned, driving the local economy. Many Dominican immigrants come to network and live with family members. Bishop Gerard Walsh, former long-time pastor of St. Elizabeth's Roman Catholic Church, located in Washington Heights, said that many residents go to the neighborhood for "cheap housing," obtain jobs "downtown," receive a "good education," and "hopefully" leave the neighborhood.
The Arts
Heralding the arts scene north of Central Park is the annual . Artists from Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill are featured in public locations throughout upper Manhattan each summer for several weeks. In 2008, the organized the Uptown Art Stroll.
The Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA), led by Executive Director Sandra A. García Betancourt, was founded in 2007 to support artists and arts organizations in Washington Heights and Inwood. Their stated mission is to cultivate, support and promote the work of artists and arts organizations in Northern Manhattan. In 2008, NoMAA awarded $50,000 in grants to to seven arts organizations and 33 artists in the Washington Heights/Inwood art community. NoMAA sponsors community arts events and publishes an email newsletter of all art events in Washington Heights and Inwood.
Fort Tryon, Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson and Hudson Heights
In the years after World War I, the area south of Fort Tryon Park borrowed the park's name. Fort Tryon was the name of the area between Broadway and the Hudson River, and south of the park to W. 179th Street. References to the old name survive in the Fort Tryon Jewish Center (on Fort Washington Avenue between W. 183rd and W. 185th Streets (there is no W. 184th Street on Fort Washington Avenue)), the Fort Tryon Deli and Grocery (also on Fort Washington Avenue, at W. 187th Street), and in the pages of the Not for Tourists Guide to New York City
The neighborhood's name had changed by the late 1940s. Jews from Germany and Austria were leaving home as the Nazi party came to power. A disproportionately large number of Germans who settled in the area had come from Frankfurt am Main, giving rise to Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson. So many Jewish immigrants lived in Washington Heights after World War II that the neighborhood around Broadway and W. 160th Street was jokingly referred to as the Fourth Reich. There remains a significant Jewish population, particularly on the west side of Broadway, descended from the previous wave of immigration, as well as students (and recent graduates) of the neighborhood's Yeshiva University.
Currently the area is referred to as "Hudson Heights," especially among residents, real estate agents and in the media. Hudson Heights is generally considered to extend as far east as Broadway, although others shrink it to the blocks between Fort Washington Avenue and the Hudson River. The name seems to have stuck starting in the 1990s, when neighborhood real estate brokers and activists started using it. By then, the neighborhood's name no longer fit.
As Soviet (and, later, Russian) immigrants filled the area, Russian became far more common than German. Once Spanish become prevalent, and English was the lingua franca, the German nickname fell by the wayside.
Fort George
Hudson Heights isn't the only Washington Heights neighborhood with a distinct name. Historically, Fort George runs from Broadway east to the Harlem River, and from West 181st Street north to Dyckman Street and Sherman Creek. The largest institution in Fort George is Yeshiva University, whose main campus sits east of Amsterdam Avenue in Highbridge Park. A branch of the Young Men's & Women's Hebrew Association is in the neighborhood, and George Washington High School sits on the site of the original Fort George.
One of Manhattan's rare semi-private streets is there. Washington Terrace runs south of West 186th Street for a half-block between Audubon and Amsterdam Avenues. The single-family homes there were built for middle-class families but some have been unoccupied for years.
It should be noted that younger people and new arrivals don't use the old Fort George name, preferring to refer to the neighborhood simply as Washington Heights.
Sherman Creek and El Alto
Sherman Creek is a small inlet of the Harlem River located south of West 201st Street, north of the Harlem River Drive, and east of Tenth Avenue. As a name for the several blocks around it, Sherman Creek is something of a historical relic, as many people don't care to distinguish it from the surrounding parts of Washington Heights. The name "Sherman Creek" in reference to a residential neighborhood, may make a re-appearance if a much-discussed huge condo complex one day gets off the ground there.
Municipal planners haven't stopped using the name, however. The Manhattan Institute held a forum, "Saving Sherman Creek," in January 2006 at the Harvard Club of New York. The New York City Economic Development Corporation is studying a $9.1 billion plan to reinvigorate the area. The Daily News (New York) has written about the project.
Interestingly, new names for neighborhoods are generally considered to be ersatz creations of real estate agents and, therefore, emblematic of gentrification. However, the newest name for Washington Heights – an alternative, really – comes not from people with dollar signs in their eyes. The Spanish-speaking Caribbean immigrants who have flocked here for decades call Washington Heights a name worthy of its elevation: El Alto.
Crime epidemic
Washington Heights was severely affected by the crack cocaine epidemic of the early/mid-1980s. This was due, in part, to the neighborhood crack gang, known as the Wild Cowboys or the Red Top Gang, who were associated with Yayo. The Wild Cowboys were responsible for the higher number of crimes, especially murders, during the late 80s and early 90s. Robert Jackall wrote a book, Wild Cowboys: Urban Marauders and the Forces of Order, describing the events that took place during that period of lawlessness. Homelessness was rampant. Washington Heights had become the largest drug distribution center in the Northeastern United States during that time. A housing project in the neighborhood was nicknamed “Crack City,” an epithet commonly bestowed upon rough areas at the time. In fact, so common was the name that Crack City was also used to refer to the Far West Side of Manhattan; Boerum Hill, Brooklyn; Roslyn Heights, N.Y.; Atlantic City, N.J.; Richmond, Calif.; and the Kilburn neighborhood of London.
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