MARBLE Hill is the only section of Manhattan located on mainland USA — because of a massive engineering project that was finished nearly a century ago. Even though Marble Hill is politically affiliated with Manhattan, geographically and “spiritually” it’s Bronx all the way. Before 1914, the Harlem River flowed into the Hudson via the twisting, turning Spuyten Duyvil Creek, a notoriously difficult waterway to cross. To get across the waterway, Frederick Philipse built the first Kings Bridge, a tolled span over Spuyten Duyvil Creek, in 1693. Benjamin Palmer and Jacob Dyckman built Farmer’s Bridge in 1759 to avoid paying the high tolls charged by Philipse. During his retreat from the Battle of Harlem Heights in 1776, General George Washington and his company used both the King’s Bridge and Palmer and Dyckman’s free bridge to escape to White Plains.
By the late 19th Century, when the difficult conditions of the Hell Gate (where the Harlem and east Rivers meet) had been alleviated, and there was a need for ship traffic to be able to easily enter the Hudson, and thence the Erie Canal, Great Lakes and western United States. Therefore, Spuyten Duyvil Creek was straightened and dredged deeper to allow larger ships to use it. After the newly christened Harlem River Ship Canal was completed, an island was left over between the canal and the remaining section of Spuyten Duyvil Creek. The section remained an island from 1895 to 1914, after which the old creek was landfilled, joining what was once the northern end of Manhattan to the mainland. That parcel was never transferred to the Bronx, leaving a piece of Manhattan on the mainland!
Terrace View Avenue runs along the west end of Marble Hill, overlooking Riverdale to the west. A dead end leading to the tall Promenade Apartments, officially a West 225th Street address, plunges south from Terrace View Avenue named Teunissen Place, named for the first settler in what became Marble Hill; Tobias Teunissen, a wool washer and farm hand who had previously been a night watchman in Leyden, Holland, in the 1630s. He was killed in 1655 by the Weekwaeskeek Indians in a raid, though his wife and 4 children were later ransomed from the tribe. It used to run to Leyden Street, which was eliminated when the Promenade Apartments were built.
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10/26/22
5 comments
I enjoy your research, as a native Brooklynite, I so look forward to a profile of East New York. I know there’s not much to report on but a good portion is still historic.
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An interesting parallel story is the saga of the three bridges that have carried Broadway across the Harlem River Ship Canal since its 1895 debut.
The first one, a truss bridge that swings on a central pier, dates from 1895 is still in use, but not at its original location. When the original IRT subway was extended to 242nd St. Van Cortlandt Park in 1908, the 1895 structure could not accommodate a second deck for trains. Thus, it was moved south to 207th St.-Fordham Road and became the University Heights Bridge, where it still is in use. NYC Dept. of Transportation completely rebuilt the bridge between 1989 and 1992. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Heights_Bridge.
A second Broadway Bridge opened in 1908 that included an upper deck for the IRT. It too was a swing truss bridge, and was officially called the 225th Street Bridge. A fire on the span in October 1956 caused enough damage to require the bridge’s replacement. Thus, in late 1960, a new, third Broadway Bridge, a vertical lift span with two tall towers, was installed. Unlike its predecessor, the 1908 bridge was not relocated, but was instead removed quickly over Christmas weekend in 1960, and cut up on site. The new bridge was partially installed right afterward to minimize the disruption to subway service. Roadway traffic resumed after about a month, and the lift towers took another year or so to build. It has been in daily subway and vehicle service ever since. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadway_Bridge_(Manhattan)#cite_note-nyt19561012-76
Another thing that distinguishes Marble Hill from the rest of Manhattan is that it’s pretty much the only neighborhood that uses the 718 area code rather than 212 that rest of the borough has when it comes to phone numbers.
On maps of the area dating back to the 1870s, it appears that Teunissen Place, Terrace View Avenue and West 228th Street were originally planned as part of Manhattan’s Seaman Avenue. I doubt that this was ever built as a continuous avenue, as it would have to have crossed a gully at the line of W 222 Street (where the Harlem River ship canal was later to be constructed), and the area was not urbanized until much later. Once the canal was built through, the Marble Hill street grid was altered to reflect that reality, and the new names were probably assigned at that time.