Tongue-In-Cheek Signs Pop Up Around Fort Tryon Park

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS-INWOOD, NY — New York City bureaucrats may not be well-known for their fun personalities, but city workers at the Parks Department should be considered an exception.

The department has installed several signs in Upper Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park this year that may resemble normal signage on first inspection, but actually contain witty messages. Some signs encourage parkgoers not to give up on long staircases — one even points out that there are only 37 steps left to conquer — identify good spots to propose and play on the park's connection to Medieval times (the park hosts an annual Medieval festival and is home to the impressive period art collection of the Met Cloisters).

Parks Department officials told Patch that the signs were installed to highlight some of Fort Tryon's unique features and to add a dash of personality to the park.

"The project adds dimension, playfulness and delight to the Fort Tryon experience, both for first-time park-goers and for those who visit daily. Signs are omnipresent in our parks, but they’re typically regulatory in nature; we wanted to turn that on its head and use signs to share Fort Tryon’s unique voice and encourage people to experience the park in a new way," a Parks Department spokeswoman said in a statement.

Parks workers installed the signs without prior notice so that parkgoers could experience the tongue-in-cheek messages organically. Department officials said that they have been pleasantly surprised by the reception to the signs, and have noticed many parkgoers incorporating them in social media posts.

"Parks Department got jokes," one Instagram user captioned a photo of a sign reminding passersby that the park's name is not pronounced "Tyron."

Fort Tryon Park was selected for the witty sign treatment because it's small enough that parkgoers will stumble upon the signs, but large enough that the signs won't distract from the overall park experience, a department spokeswoman said.

The park runs along the Hudson River between West 190th Street and Riverside Drive. The space was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., son of the legendary landscape architect behind Central Park, and was built in the 1930s using parcels of land donated by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., according to the Parks Department's website.

Check out some examples of the signs below, courtesy the Parks Department: