This is another shot from my New Year’s morning excursion to Fort Tryon Park in very northern Manhattan. I’ve told the story of that morning with almost every post from the shoot so I will not repeat it here, but if you are interested use the site search function for “Tryon” and you’ll get the background. You can see thew Hudson River and the Palisades of New Jersey in the distance.
I did just realize I’ve never gone into the name or history of the park. The location was a supplemental fortification to the Battle of Fort Washington in the Revolutionary war. General Washington gave local commanders discretionary authority to withdraw from Fort Washington, located nearby, as he was concerned that his forces could not defend the area properly. Those commanders chose to remain, and before Washington has a chance to review the situation first hand, the British attacked. They won, and Fort Tryon was named for William Tryon, the last British governor of New York. I was quite surprised to learn that we never renamed the location.
In any event, after the loss, the American forces did withdraw across the Hudson into New Jersey and eventually Pennsylvania, leading eventually to the American victories at Trenton and Princeton that helped to turn the direction of the war.
Mark Neal
19 Jul 2012Great image, Mark. I like your lead in to the stairs from the right. My posts this week are connected by the same person, William Tryon. I’m doing a series on the Tryon Palace in New Bern NC. Interesting history. He was the Royal Governor in North Carolina before moving to New York.
Mark
20 Jul 2012Thanks, Mark. I visited your set of posts this week and left a comment over there. Well done.
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Edith Levy
20 Jul 2012Wonderful perspective Mark.