Welcome to Riverside Park

Riverside Park

Riverside Park is a long narrow strip of land between Riverside Drive and the Hudson River, extending from 72nd street to 158th street. Prehistoric glaciers left rocky outcroppings and steep bluffs on the site and before European settlement the rough terrain was only sparsely populated by Aboriginal Americans.

In 1846, the Hudson River Railroad was built along the shoreline. Between the end of the civil war (President Grant's tomb is in the park) and 1875 the land between the tracks and the bluffs was acquired by the city and plans for a park were commissioned from Frederick Law Olmstead, the chief designer of Central Park. His plan (with numerous modifications) was implemented between 1875 and 1900.

Between 1934 and 1937 a plan known as the West Side Improvement was executed along the Hudson riverfront to double the size of Riverside park to include the West Side Highway and the railroad tracks (which were covered by a promenade). As such the park is split in half by the West Side Highway, the main north-south freeway on the west side (it's East side counterpart is the FDR drive which runs along the East River).

Riverside Park's long, narrow shape makes it defy convenient cartography, but here's an attempt. A vector version of this is also available as an SVG file HERE