Where the Seekonk River meets the Providence River in Fox Point, your India Point Park marks Providence's first 1680 port. This patch of waterfront takes its name from the bold maritime links that once tied Providence to the East and West Indies. Imagine the city’s first port, established in 1680, that flourished as a center of maritime trade for 250 years.
John Brown ran his tea and spice trade with the East Indies right here, and in August 1790 he even took George Washington for a carriage ride to India Point. In the early 1800s Fox Point became a bustle of movement, serving as many as seven steamship lines, and in 1835 the Boston and Providence Railroad opened on India Street at Ives. The park you stand in remained an important trade center until the Great Depression, and today it links past and present: the East Bay Bike Path begins at the eastern end of the park, crosses over the Washington Bridge toward Watchemoket Square in East Providence, and continues on to the Bristol waterfront north of the Mount Hope Bridge.
India Point Park is also part of the Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route. Notice the rivers, the Washington Bridge, and the bike path stretching east.