|
BRONX RIVER - YESTERDAY AND TODAY
 One of the
little-known marvels of the New York City landscape, the 23-mile Bronx River winds down
through southern Westchester and the Bronx to define a peaceful corridor of green for
fishing, strolling, biking, boating and nature study amid the noise and bustle of urban
life. It is the only major watercourse within city limits that is not entirely tidal.
Called Aquehung or
"River of High Bluffs" by the Mohegan Indians who first lived and fished along
it, the river attracted European traders in the early 1600s for the sleek, fat beaver that
proliferated there. In 1639, a wealthy Dutchman, Jonas Bronck, purchased 500 acres from
the Mohegans, and mills began to sprout up and down "Bronck's River." By the
mid-1700s as many as 12 mills were manufacturing paper, flour, pottery, tapestries,
barrels and snuff, powered by water fron the stream.
The river valley
remained thickly foresterd well up into the 1800s. In his 1817 poem "Bronx,"
Joseph Rodman Drake described "rocks" and "clefts" full of "loose
ivy dangling" and "sumach of the liveliest green." The water was considered
so "pure and wholesome" that during the 1820s and 1830s the New York City Board
of Aldermen debated ways to tap into it to supply the growing city with drinking water.
The construction of
the New York Central Railroad in the 1840s turned the valley into an industrial corridor,
and by the end of the 19th Century the Bronx River and degenerated into what one official
commission called "an open sewer." The history of the river since the 1880s has
been one of efforts to reclaim and protect it from the escalating forces of urbanization.
The consolidation of
various properties to form the 662-acre
 Bronx Park in 1888 provided a buffer against
development on either side of the river. The Bronx River Valley Sewer, initiated by
Westchester County in 1905, began absorbing some of the worst sewage. The largest project
was the Bronx River Parkway, completed in 1925. The 15.5-mile ribbon of parks, lakes and
limited-access roadway stretching from the Kensico Dam to Bronx Park provided a landscaped
recreation zone and a pleasure drive for cars passing through at low speeds.
Today, hundreds of
thousands of commuters speed across the Bronx River and dozens of industries flourish on
its banks. But underneath the highways and elevated tracks, behind the warehouses and
guardrails and fences, the river still rushes along, providing a necessary slice of nature
for ducks and bike-riders, turtles and toddlers, perch, tuliptrees, great blue heron, and
fathers and daughters with fishing poles. As the 20th Century becomes the 21st, people are
returning to the Bronx River, drawn back to a place that has remained true to itself in a
region where much else has changed.
The river passes
through the Townships of Mt. Pleasant and North Castle, the City of White Plains, the Town
of Greenburgh, the Village of Scarsdale, the Town of Eastchester, the Village of Tuckaho,
the City of Yonkers, the Village of Bronxville, and the City of Mt. Vernon before entering
The Bronx.
It's your
river! Call 718 430-1810 and ask for the Partnerships for Parks Bronx River Coordinator to
find out how you can participate in the preservation of this ancient and beautiful section
of the New York City landscape.
See Norwood
News Story
Rolling on the Bronx River
Boost for
River's Greenway |
