NYC Parks' Urban Park Rangers are leading a free walk on the newly opened trails of Spuyten Duyvil Shorefront Park in Riverdale on Saturday, October 24, from 11 a.m. to noon. No registration is required.

The walk, listed as Nature Exploration and Restoration, follows trails that NYC Parks says hundreds of volunteers and stewards recently restored. Rangers will talk about the restoration work still under way and about the fall foliage along the way.

The park

Spuyten Duyvil Shorefront Park is a 6.6-acre nature area on the Bronx side of the Spuyten Duyvil, the channel where the Harlem River meets the Hudson. NYC Parks describes one trail that runs beneath the Henry Hudson Bridge to a native pond where birds and other wildlife come to drink, and another that leads to open views of the Palisades across the Hudson.

Its nearest park neighbors are Henry Hudson Park on the hill above and, across the water, Inwood Hill Park in Manhattan. The Rangers can be reached at 718-548-0912 with questions about the walk.

Thursday: Washington and the King's Bridge

Two days earlier, the Kingsbridge Historical Society presents a free talk, Washington and the King's Bridge, on Thursday, October 22, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Riverdale Neighborhood House, 5521 Mosholu Avenue.

Society member Gerry Bogacz will describe how George Washington's army withdrew from Manhattan in the fall of 1776 and nearly came apart as it crossed the King's Bridge into what is now the northwest Bronx. The talk covers two Continental units that slowed General William Howe's attempt to surround the army, one of them under Colonel John Glover, whose regiment included free Black and Indigenous soldiers. The society presents it as a chapter that Ken Burns' new documentary on the American Revolution does not cover.

The talk is funded by the city's Department of Youth and Community Development with the City Council and by the New York State Council on the Arts. Questions go to info@kingsbridgehistoricalsociety.org.

Getting there

  • Ranger walk: Saturday, Oct. 24, 11 a.m. to noon, Spuyten Duyvil Shorefront Park. Free, no registration. Metro-North's Hudson Line stops at Spuyten Duyvil station, and the Bx7 and Bx20 buses run along Johnson Avenue and Henry Hudson Parkway above the park.
  • History talk: Thursday, Oct. 22, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Riverdale Neighborhood House, 5521 Mosholu Avenue. Free.

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