Plaza Lafayette is a small, park and surrounding streets in the Hudson Heights neighborhood of Washington Heights,

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Named after the

Marquis de Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (, ), was a French aristocrat, freemason and military officer who fought in the American Revolutio ...

, the French hero of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

, the park is roughly

trapezoid A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a convex quadrilateral in Eu ...

al in shape, and is bounded by Riverside Drive – originally called Boulevard Lafayette in this area – on the west, the westbound lane of West 181st Street – also called "Plaza Lafayette" here – on the north, the eastbound lane of West 181st Street/Plaza Lafayette on the south, and Haven Avenue on the east. The land was acquired by the city on February 23, 1918. The park itself has no amenities, but across what is now Riverside Drive is a small viewing area. This and the parklet itself are located near the highest natural point in Manhattan – about 5 block away in Bennett Park – and the viewing platform has unobstructed views of the

George Washington Bridge The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting Fort Lee, New Jersey, with Manhattan in New York City. The bridge is named after George Washington, the first president of the United S ...

, the

Hudson Palisades The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson River Palisades, are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in Northeastern New Jersey and Southeastern New York in the United States. The cliffs s ...

, and the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

. The platform has stairs leading down to what is now the

Henry Hudson Parkway The Henry Hudson Parkway is a parkway in New York City. The southern terminus is in Manhattan at 72nd Street, where the parkway continues south as the West Side Highway. It is often erroneously referred to as the West Side Highway throughout i ...

, which was once Riverside Drive. The staircase is now gated off, but can still be seen from the

Hudson River Greenway The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway is a waterfront greenway for walking or cycling, long, around the island of Manhattan, in New York City. The largest portions are operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. It is separate ...

, on the other side of the parkway, which is reachable by a pedestrian bridge about a block north of the Plaza.

Gallery

File:GWBweb.jpg,

as seen from the Plaza's viewing platform File:Stairs from Plaza Lafayette to Henry Hudson Parkway.jpg, Now-disused staircase leading down from the viewing area to what was once Riverside Drive, but is now the northbound lanes of the

File:Castle Village HHP jeh.JPG, Pedestrian bridge over the parkway to the

, north of the Plaza, as seen from the Greenway; in the background is the Castle Village complex.

References

External links

* Washington Heights, Manhattan Parks in Manhattan Streets in Manhattan Urban public parks {{NYC-stub