Croton Gorge Park

The park today

Croton Gorge Park occupies 97 acres directly below the New Croton Dam, where the spillway pours into the Croton River gorge. The park has open lawns and picnic areas, a playground, a ballfield, restrooms and drinking water (restroom buildings open mid-April through October, portable toilets off-season). Visitors fish the Croton River, picnic on the lawns facing the dam, and hike unpaved paths that climb from the parking lot to the dam crest, where a walkway crosses the top of the dam. New York State's Old Croton Aqueduct trail begins in the park and runs south through Westchester. In winter the park is used for sledding and cross-country skiing. Swimming is prohibited.

History

The first dam here, the Old Croton Dam, was built between 1837 and 1842 as the source of the Old Croton Aqueduct, which carried water 41 miles by gravity to New York City. It was the first large masonry dam in the United States, and the aqueduct remained in service until 1955.

As the city grew, a far larger replacement was begun in September 1892: the New Croton Dam, also called the Cornell Dam, designed by engineer Alphonse Fteley with hydraulic engineer James B. Francis consulting. Completed in January 1906, the masonry dam rises 297 feet from its rock foundation — about 130 feet of which lies below the riverbed — and runs 2,188 feet including its 1,000-foot curved, stepped spillway. At completion it was the tallest dam in the world. The New Croton Reservoir it impounds holds roughly 34 billion gallons and flooded about 20 square miles, covering more than 400 farms and six cemeteries; the 1842 dam was submerged beneath it.

Construction was troubled by labor disputes, including a strike in 1900 that was depicted the same year in the silent film The Croton Dam Strike. The road across the top of the dam was closed to general vehicle traffic after the September 11, 2001 attacks, though pedestrians may still cross. In October 2006 the American Society of Civil Engineers placed a plaque at Croton Gorge Park marking the dam's 100th year of service.

The New Croton Dam

The dam is 297 feet high from base to crest, 266 feet broad and about 206 feet thick at the base, tapering to 15 feet wide at the top, with a 1,000-foot curved spillway that steps the overflow down into the gorge. Cars have been barred from the road across the dam since the September 11, 2001 attacks, but the crest walkway remains open to pedestrians — reached from the park by footpaths up the hillside — except during occasional New York City DEP inspection closures.

The Old Croton Aqueduct trailhead

The Old Croton Aqueduct trail — a New York State historic park following the 1837–1842 aqueduct's buried masonry conduit — has its northern terminus at Croton Gorge Park. The trail runs 26.2 miles south through Westchester County toward the New York City line, continuing to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.

Visiting

Hours

Open daily, 8 a.m. to dusk, year-round.

Fees

Parking $5 with a Westchester County Park Pass, $10 without — cash only; collected weekends only in May and September and daily from May 23 through Labor Day (Sept. 7, 2026). No fee the rest of the year.

Parking

Single lot at the base of the dam, off Route 129; fee booth operates in season (cash only).

Getting there

Entrance at 350 Yorktown Road (Route 129), Croton-on-Hudson, about 3.5 miles northeast of the village center — follow Grand Street/Municipal Place to Route 129 east along the Croton River. On foot, the unpaved Old Croton Aqueduct trail reaches the park from the village.

Rules

Dogs must be leashed — county rules set a six-foot maximum leash and a limit of three dogs per person, and bar dogs from picnic areas and playgrounds. Swimming is prohibited. No campfires. Unauthorized motor vehicles, including electric bikes and scooters, are not permitted. Drones and other model aircraft are prohibited in Westchester County parks.

Accessibility

In this park

Links

• Official county park page
• Old Croton Aqueduct State Historic Park
• NYC DEP — New Croton Dam walkway notices