The pond occupied approximately and was as deep as . Fed by an underground spring, it was located in a valley, with Bayard Mount (at , the tallest hill in lower Manhattan) to the northeast and "Kalck Hoek" (Dutch for "Chalk Point", named for the numerous oyster shell middens left by the indigenous Native American inhabitants) to the west. A stream flowed north out of the pond and then west through a salt marsh (which, after being drained, became a meadow by the name of "Lispenard Meadows") to the Hudson River, while another stream issued from the southeastern part of the pond in an easterly direction to the East River.