YOU’RE looking at what is probably the most well-kept and wide-open section of Boston Road in the Bronx. That’s because regular traffic isn’t permitted onto it, as it runs through the eastern section of the Bronx Zoo in Bronx Park, and its traffic is limited to vehicles serving the zoological gardens.The park was acquired from Fordham University as well as the Lydig and Lorillard families. Before that, Boston Road ran through open country where Bronx Park is today. It was closed to the public within Bronx Park in 1924.
For some of its route, Boston Road is U.S. 1, which indeed goes northeast to Boston and further into Maine. Following it south will get you to Key West, Florida in a few days. Once north of NYC, the road is called Boston Post Road depending on where you are; each municipality calls US 1 by a different name within its jurisdiction.
This road is not the original Post Road to Boston. Remnants of that road can be found elsewhere around northern Bronx. This road is quite old, nonetheless. It was plotted after the Revolutionary War by Colonel Lewis Morris, who wanted his own version of the Post Road to Boston to run through his property. In 1794, John B. Coles connected the road to a bridge across the Harlem River and so, it’s known to some historians as Coles’ Boston Road.
For a good read about the original Boston Post Road, see The King’s Best Highway: The Lost History of the Boston Post Road, the Route That Made America by Eric Jaffe.
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11/11/22