It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest natural point on Manhattan by Continental Army troops to defend the area from the British forces during the American Revolutionary War.

Washington Heights is set apart among Manhattan neighborhoods for its high residential density despite the lack of modern construction, with the majority of its few high-rise buildings belonging to the NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the area was traversed by American Indians from the Early Woodland Period,[6]: 117  who left remains of shellfish and pottery at the site of the present-day Little Red Lighthouse.

[7]: 79  Washington Heights is part of the section of northern Manhattan that is the homelands of the Wecquaesgeeks (originally a name for the area meaning "birch-bark country"),[8]: 3  a band of the Wappinger and a Lenape Native American people.

[9]: 5 [10][11] The winding path of Broadway north of 168th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue to its south is living evidence of the old Wecquaesgeek trail which travelled along the Hudson Valley from Lower Manhattan all the way through Albany.

[12]: 65 [20]: 331  When New York's Provincial Congress assented to the Declaration of Independence on July 9, 1776, the head of the statue of George III ended up on a spike at the Blue Bell Tavern, broken off by a "rowdy" group of civilians and soldiers at Bowling Green.

[11]: 12 [36]: 1026 [37]: 60 Although skyrocketing land values sparked early predictions that upper-class apartment buildings would dominate the neighborhood, such development was limited in the pre-World War I period to the Audubon Park area west of Broadway and south of 158th Street.

[38]: 48 The assault, which ended in Michael Farmer's death, was perpetrated by an alliance of the African American Egyptian Kings and the Puerto Rican Dragons, both based in West Harlem just south of the Heights.

The supposed motive for the attack was to counter the perception that Highbridge Pool was "owned" by the Jesters, and Black and Latino youths were often called racial slurs and chased away from the surrounding blocks.

[38]: 138  Apart from the allure of suburban homes and their economic capacity to buy them, White residents were spurred to leave by the demographic changes themselves, increasing negligence of residential buildings, and rising crime (having more than doubled between 1969 and 1982).

[56]: 12  The combination of the recent passing of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Balaguer's policy of freely granting passports, and the country's high unemployment rate created the conditions for growing emigration from the Dominican Republic.

[57]: 58  Some of the initial migrants were left-wing revolutionaries exiled by the Balaguer regime, theorized to have been granted visas through an unwritten agreement with the United States, but the majority of arrivals came for better economic opportunities.

[35]: 162 [38]: 94  Fierce competition between different factions for educational funding and new schools was compounded by the disproportionate representation of the majority-White northwestern Heights on the board, creating an environment in which public meetings were plagued by incivility and at times even violence.

[38]: 99  Located in a grand building with a Works Progress Administration mural by Lucienne Bloch,[63] the school was relatively prestigious in the decades after its 1925 founding, graduating people such as Alan Greenspan, Henry Kissinger, and Murray Jarvik.

[68] By the end of 1970, the high school had seen the resignation of three principals and multiple incidents of violence against students, teachers, and security guards;[69] while many safety improvements were made throughout the 1970s, its academic performance continued to decline.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s a moderate influx of Soviet Jews occurred following a loosening of the country's emigration policy,[78]: 17  predominantly professionals and artists pushed out by antisemitism and drawn by economic opportunity.

[38]: 162  Another contributing factor was that as Dominican dealers such as Santiago Luis Polanco Rodríguez brought the group higher status in cocaine operations, the heavily-Dominican Washington Heights became increasingly important as a strategic location.

[73] The effects of the crack trade extended beyond physical danger to a breakdown in trust and widespread fear provoked by violence in public places as well as murders of people uninvolved in the drug business.

[116] Furthermore, there have been several businesses faced with drastic rent increases, such as Coogan's, a well-known restaurant and bar which managed to renegotiate with its landlord NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital following outcry by many locals, including Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Luis Miranda and Robert Ramirez of the Manhattan Times wrote in 2005, "How sad and ironic that many of the same people who fought to save our neighborhoods in the face of thugs and drugs have ultimately been forced to surrender their communities to the almighty dollar.

"[38]: 206  Echoing this sentiment, Crossing Broadway author Robert W. Snyder said, "The people who saved Washington Heights in the days of crime and crack deserve more for their pains than a stiff rent increase.

"[38]: 237  Fears about displacement in Upper Manhattan have most recently manifest themselves in the controversy surrounding the 2018 Inwood rezoning plan, which despite its offers of community benefits and affordable housing has been accused of accelerating real estate speculation.

[170] The United Palace, a landmarked theater built in 1930,[171] continues as a space for film and live performance in the present day, having featured musicians such as John Legend, Bob Dylan, Lenny Kravitz, and Lauryn Hill.

[182] The Polo Grounds were the site of two baseball-related deaths: the first of Ray Chapman in 1920 after being hit in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays, and the second of spectator Bernard Doyle in 1950,[183] accidentally killed by a 14-year-old boy who had fired his .45 caliber pistol into the air from his apartment on Edgecombe Avenue.

The original Cloisters museum, a collection of medieval art owned by George Grey Barnard and located on upper Fort Washington Avenue,[15] was purchased by the Metropolitan with Rockefeller funds in 1925.

[215] Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the museum has a vast collection of Romanesque and Gothic art, including the Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries, purchased by Rockefeller for $1 million in 1922.

[238] A National Historic Landmark,[239] the Audubon Terrace is home to the Hispanic Society of America, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Our Lady of Esperanza Church, and Boricua College.

[253] Part of Washington Heights' historically Black southeastern area,[47]: 38  the building is known for its famous African American residents including actor Paul Robeson, musician Count Basie, and boxer Joe Louis.

[38]: 205 [265] The newspaper features stories about news and events of interest to residents on the city and neighborhood level, and is funded in part by private advertisements in addition to public service announcements.

[293] The United States Postal Service operates four post offices in Washington Heights: Community District 12 has fewer college graduates and more high school dropouts compared to the borough and city as a whole.