HIKE THE HEIGHTS!
Meet the Parks of Northern Manhattan along the Rock Cliffs of the Giraffe Path Mile 6
Legend Giraffe Path Giraffe Path incomplete Stairs on the Giraffe Path Other Trails Park Entrance Entrance with Stairs A B C D Subway Entrances 1 2 3 The Cloisters Restrooms Swimming Pool Water Fountain Basketball Barbeque Baseball Playground Tennis
Broadway “The path is almost 6 miles and connects 6 parks.” Mile 5
Dyckman Street Nagle Avenue Swindler Cove
The Cloisters Fort Tryon Park 1
190th Street
187th Street
Highbridge Forest Mile 4
Heather Garden Broadway
Audubon Avenue Audubon WadsworthAvenue Amsterdam Avenue Amsterdam St Nicholas Avenue Nicholas St
181th Street
“Help us close the gap in the
path!” Fort Washington Avenue Washington Fort “Until then, you can use this detour.” Highbridge Water Tower
175th Street
High Bridge Broadway
170th Street Highbridge Park Mile 3
165th Street
Morris Jumel Mansion Highbridge Park
160th Street
Broadway
John T. Brush Stairway
D B 155th Street
Jackie Robinson Park St Nicholas Avenue Nicholas St
Jackie Robinson Park
“This pool is the best place in the Jackie Robinson Bandshell Mile 2 summer!”
140th Street
Hamilton Grange
“This hill is fabulous for St. Nicholas Park rolling down in the g ra s s.”
C 135th Street 2 3
Broadway Amsterdam Avenue
130th Street Mile 1
St.125th Nicholas Street Park
Morningside Park Broadway 120th Street Fifth Avenue
Morningside Park Malcolm X Boulevard Amsterdam Avenue Morningside Avenue 116th Street Frederick Douglass Boulevard Frederick Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard Adam Clayton Powell
This map was produced by CLIMB with the support of desigNYC, Partnerships for Parks and “Walk north Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez from Central Park to explore the Giraffe Path.”
St. John the Divine
New York City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez Central Park THE CLOISTERS
Situated in Fort Tryon Park, the Cloisters Museum is a branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It houses a collection of The Cloisters nearly 2,000 pieces of internationally renowned
medieval art and architecture as well as a Mile 6 Froville sequence of gardens planted according to FORT TRYON PARK FORT TRYON Bonnefont-en-Comminges information in medieval treatises and poetry. France An immersive experience, the museum itself was built to incorporate actual elements from Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert medieval cloisters in Europe. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donated the collection and the Trie-sur-Baïse Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa land that is today Fort Tryon Park and its magnificent Heather Garden. He also bought and donated 700 acres of the New Jersey Palisades across the Hudson River specifically The Cloisters to preserve the spectacular view from the Cloisters and the park surrounding it.
Inwood Marble
SWINDLER COVE
Swindler Cove was once a dump—literally, with tons of garbage, rusted-out cars, sunken boats and construction debris deforming it and Swindler Cove the adjacent Sherman Creek shoreline. Billy Swindler, a city garden advocate, brought it to the attention of the New York Restoration Project in 1990. Together with the Parks
Department, they transformed the place and Riley-Levin Children's named it after Swindler, who died of AIDS in Center
1997. Mile 5 HARLEM RIVER PARKWAY 10TH AVENUE
Today it hosts an outdoor classroom providing PS 5 a wide spectrum of environmental programming for youth from the neighborhood, and is an oasis of natural Sherman Peter J Sharp Creek habitat that accommodates a series of ponds, Boathouse Center
saltwater marshes, a Children’s Garden and Animal boathouse. Estates
HIGHBRIDGE FOREST
The steep slopes of Highbridge Park prohibited widespread farming or development, and since much of the land was never cleared, native plants have survived here to this day. Other non-native species such as Manhattan Schist hawthorn, Siberian elm, and Norway maple were planted as ornamentals in landscaped areas of the park. As a result, Higbridge Park is home to an astounding variety of trees, providing a unique urban forested habitat for migratory birds.
Plants of Highbridge Forest Some non-native plants are invasive and threaten the balanced growth of the forest. Several organizations are actively engaged
with the NYC Department of Parks & Mile 4 Recreation to remove harmful plants. You can Gum Tree Siberian Elm Sassafras Poison Ivy Sycamore Black Locust help restore this habitat by joining them as a volunteer.
New York City’s Drinking Water HIGH BRIDGE Catskill/Delaware A city needs clean water to thrive and the Old Watershed Croton Aqueduct was once New York
City's major source of drinking water. HIGHBRIDGE PARK
Built between 1839 and 1842, it was used Croton Aqueduct until 1959. Water travelled along the aqueduct Delaware Aqueduct for 41 miles from the Croton Dam and reservoir in Westchester County to 42nd Street in Manhattan—entirely by gravity and the Croton Watershed force added by the Highbridge Water Tower.
Designed by John B. Jervis, the engineer of the Erie Canal, it was built according to the High Bridge, 1940 Highbridge Water Tower Highbridge Water same principles as ancient Roman aqueducts. Today, you can even follow the historic path of the water along the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail and over the newly-restored car-free High Bridge that connects Manhattan New York City and the Bronx.
High Bridge Mile 3 THE POLO GROUNDS Coogan’s Bluff, 1908 The Polo Grounds were home to many famous New York baseball and football teams during the first half of the 20th century. The stadium was Willie Mays originally built for the New York Giants in 1890. NY Giants
John T. Brush Stairway John T.
In 1913 the Giants built the John T. Brush Stairway to connect the top of Coogan’s Bluff to the Polo Grounds. The staircase was restored in 2013 with help from Major League Baseball, the Giants, the Yankees, the Mets and
Jackie Robinson the Jets—all teams that played at the Polo Brooklyn Dodgers Grounds at one time or another. The staircase allows us to imagine stepping down the steep Bobby Thomson NY Giants escarpment to the ticket booth, and feel the excitement of fans in anticipation of the fierce competition of the games. Famous players at the Polo Grounds Babe Ruth NY Yankees JACKIE ROBINSON PARK HAMILTON GRANGE
Hamilton Grange is a majestic National Mile 2 Memorial to Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton was the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury and thus an important figure in the financial health of the country. He originally built this Burr-Hamilton Duel, 1804 house in 1802 on a 32-acre estate and named it "The Grange" after his father's ancestral home in Scotland.
He lived here only for two years. In 1804 he was fatally wounded in a pistol duel with his political rival Aaron Burr. Today, you can visit the Grange and learn more about its influential owner and
what it was like to live during the time of the Hamilton Grange founding of the United States. And check out his portrait on the 10-dollar bill!
MORNINGSIDE PARK POND
In 1968, student and community protesters halted Columbia University’s construction of a gymnasium in Morningside Park. The project was designed with an entrance at the bottom for the Harlem community to use a Mallard Duck dedicated facility and a separate entrance at Student Protest, 1968 the top for Columbia students to use the main ST. NICHOLAS PARK ST.
facility. After the project was halted, the Mile 1 excavated foundation remained a scar in the ground for 20 years until it was converted into a naturalistic pond and waterfall in 1990.
Today this “accidental” treasure is a much-loved habitat for a growing population of animals: you might see mallard ducks, Snow-white Egret snow-white egrets, sparrows, turtles, and frogs. Canada Goose
Pet Turtle
CLIMB CLIMB (City Life Is Moving Bodies) promotes physical, social, and civic activity in the com- munities of northern Manhattan. We encourage you
to use what we call the Giraffe Path—an urban MORNINGSIDE PARK hiking trail that connects six dramatically beautiful parks. They are formed of a long steep cliff carved by glaciers thousands of years ago. Giraffe Path Marker, 2011
Every year, on the first Saturday in June, we celebrate the parks with “Hike the Heights.” This event brings thousands of people—and several hundred hand-crafted giraffes!—to explore the riches of these cliffside parks. We created this map to introduce you to the Giraffe Path, to invite you to Hike the Heights, and encourage you to explore Pond Morningside Park northern Manhattan parks on your own. Join us by becoming an ambassador for urban hiking, and help close the gap in the path. www.hiketheheights.org www.facebook.com/HikeTheHeights