During the American Revolution, General George Washington used the Morris-Jumel Mansion, adjacent to the southern end of the park near Edgecombe Avenue and West 160th Street, as his headquarters in September and October 1776.

The New York City Department of Public Parks acquired a 2.25-mile (3.62 km) strip of land on the Harlem River between 155th and Dyckman Streets in May 1884.

[5] Local landowners complained about a New York state law that would force them to pay for half of the park's assessed value.

[8] In February 1888, Samuel Parsons Jr. and Calvert Vaux were ordered to prepare plans for Highbridge Park, with a main entrance at 159th Street.

[10] The borders were revised in December 1888 to encompass the land between Tenth (Amsterdam) Avenue to the west and the Harlem River to the east.

[11][12]Three men were appointed in April 1889 to appraise 1,976 lots on the site;[13][14] one of the appointees, former U.S. President Grover Cleveland, declined the position.

[15] Property owners continued to oppose the new park,[16] speaking out against a proposed northward extension to Dyckman Street that would have cost $2.5 million.

By the early years of the 20th century, upper-middle class New Yorkers would promenade along the wide boardwalks in top hats and bustles.

[22] In 1934, mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia nominated Robert Moses to become commissioner of a unified New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

At the time, the United States was experiencing the Great Depression; immediately after La Guardia won the 1933 election, Moses began to write "a plan for putting 80,000 men to work on 1,700 relief projects".

[27][28] The pools would be built using funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency created as part of the New Deal to combat the Depression's negative effects.

Moses, along with architects Aymar Embury II and Gilmore David Clarke, created a common design for these proposed aquatic centers.

Each location was to have distinct pools for diving, swimming, and wading; bleachers and viewing areas; and bathhouses with locker rooms that could be used as gymnasiums.

The pools were to have several common features, such as a minimum 55-yard (50 m) length, underwater lighting, heating, filtration, and low-cost construction materials.

To fit the requirement for cheap materials, each building would be built using elements of the Streamline Moderne and Classical architectural styles.

Particularly in Highbridge Park, large sections set aside as natural areas, had been taken over by homeless people who built permanent shacks made of sheet metal and steel pipes driven into the earth.

[45] NYC Parks continued to face financial shortfalls in the coming years, and the pools retained a reputation for high crime.

[46] Additionally, in the 1990s, a practice called "whirlpooling" became common in New York City pools such as Highbridge Park, wherein women would be inappropriately fondled by teenage boys.

[50][51] By the turn of the century, crimes such as sexual assaults had decreased in parks citywide due to increased security.

[45] On May 19, 2007, the first legal mountain bike trails and dirt jumps in New York City were opened in Highbridge Park.

A writer for Curbed NY observed that there were homeless encampments under the Harlem River Drive, and that much of the park south of Washington Bridge remained overgrown.

[64] 10–15 acres of dense brush caught fire in November 2024, as part of a series of wildfires in the Northeast United States due to a drought.

The 200-foot (61 m)-tall octagonal tower was designed by John B. Jervis in a mixture of Romanesque Revival and neo-Grec styles, and was accompanied by the 7-acre (2.8 ha) Highbridge Reservoir.

[47] With the opening of the Croton Aqueduct, the High Bridge system became less relied upon; during World War I it was taken out of service when sabotage was feared.

The High Bridge Water Tower underwent a 10 year, $5 million renovation, and reopened to the public for scheduled tours in November 2021.