Washington Heights
Neighborhood Intelligence

Washington Heights occupies the high ground of Upper Manhattan, from West 155th Street north to Dyckman Street and from the Hudson River palisades inland toward the bluffs above the Harlem River. It is named for Fort Washington, built in 1776 by Continental Army troops at what was then the island's highest natural point, and it remained largely a district of country estates until the early 1900s, when it was opened to apartment building. Irish, Eastern European, German Jewish, Greek, Cuban, and Puerto Rican residents followed one another here, and since the 1980s it has been the most prominent Dominican community in the United States. The official area covered here combines NYC Planning's Washington Heights (South) and Washington Heights (North) neighborhood tabulation areas.

Much of the housing is dense prewar apartment buildings, with the neighborhood's few high-rises mostly belonging to the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian campus. The Morris-Jumel Mansion, built in 1765 and the oldest surviving house in Manhattan, served briefly as George Washington's headquarters in 1776. Audubon Terrace holds the Hispanic Society of America, and the United Palace, a former Loew's movie palace, anchors Broadway at 175th Street. Fort Tryon Park and the Met Cloisters overlook the Hudson, and the Little Red Lighthouse stands beneath the George Washington Bridge.