6. Washington Heights’ drugs trade in the ’80s and ’90s was tied to its proximity to the George Washington Bridge
As The New Yorker reported in the 1995 article “Writing Down Secrets,” “From 1990 to 1992, Washington Heights had more homicides than any other neighborhood in New York. Partly because of the area’s proximity to the George Washington Bridge, it has an active–and deadly–drug trade.”
The New York Times also wrote, “Partly by accident of geography, Washington Heights became a symbol of the drug crisis in the 1980s. Access to the highways gave parts of the neighborhood almost the feel of a tourist economy. It is at the nexus of the Cross Bronx Expressway, the Harlem River Drive, the Henry Hudson Parkway, and the George Washington Bridge.”