Now, an annual festival is held in September to include a book reading and tour. The well-known story of the friendship between the little round lighthouse and the mighty gray bridge galvanized children and their parents to advocate, successfully, for the preservation of the structure. Decommissioned in 1947, the lighthouse was scheduled to be sold for scrap in 1951. By 1931 the lights of the newly erected George Washington Bridge directly overhead illuminated the river beneath and rendered the lighthouse obsolete. The lighthouse, originally located at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, was placed on a spit of land named Jeffrey’s Hook, a navigation hazard throughout much of our early history.Ī variety of warning devices were used over time in this spot, culminating in the 1921 installation of this 40-ft. And, oh, it hasn’t hurt that Lin-Manuel Miranda has celebrated the neighborhood in his hit musical and film, In the Heights, to become a Hollywood film produced by Jay-Z.Ĭhildren’s literature matters! The Little Red Lighthouse is the only lighthouse remaining on Manhattan island, albeit a non-functioning one, is the subject of the 1942 beloved children’s book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge, written by Hildegarde Swift and illustrated by Lynd Ward. With low crime, relatively affordable spacious apartments, an abundance of parks, and an easy commute to midtown, the Heights has seen real estate prices soaring and people coming just for the day or to explore some of the must-see sights. Today the area is one of the safest in Manhattan. Working with local police, determined individuals and diverse community groups united to fight the scourge, and crime dropped. While Dominicans are still the dominant group in the Heights, immigrants from other Latin American countries have added to the diversity.īetween the 1980s and early 1990s, parts of the Heights had become home to the crack epidemic and the violence that accompanied it. By the 1960s, Dominicans became the predominant ethnic group, bringing a different flavor to the shopping and restaurants as well as the sounds of Spanish language and music to the streets. While numerous ethnic groups had lived side by side in the Heights, some populations, like the Greeks, have largely relocated, while others, like Jews and Irish, have remained. With an easy commute to jobs downtown and an abundant stock of low-rise, predominantly art deco apartment buildings, living in the Heights became a residential step up from tenement housing in lower Manhattan. With the development first of rapid mass transit at the start of the 20th century (IRT line, now the 1) and then the addition of the IND (A and C lines) in the early 1930s the area expanded quickly. Historically, the high rocky ridge that dominates the western part of northern Manhattan played a role in the American Revolution (the site of Fort Washington) as well as becoming a desired location for Gilded Age estates with magnificent Hudson River views. The neighborhood includes Hudson Heights (north of 181st Street and west of Broadway) and Fort George (north of 181st Street and east of Broadway). Washington Heights is generally held to run from 155th Street on the south to Dyckman Street on the north and from the East River to the Hudson. If you’d like to visit the oldest house in Manhattan, see the best views in any park in the City, enjoy great food and drinks, all for one subway fare, then you must visit the Heights, even more recently made famous by the release of the Lin Manuel-Miranda film In the Heights. You have to come here to really know our beloved city. “Upstate” Manhattan has a decided residential feel, and it also contains many gems for any lover of things New York. This week’s guide is by Untapped New York tour guide Alan Cohen. Welcome back to our regular column on “Must Visit Places” in NYC’s neighborhoods, written by one of our contributors who are residents of that neighborhood.
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