In Search of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek
The creek has long been filled in, but it's course can still be seen.
Map of Spuyten Duyvil Creek and Tibbett's Brook
View west on W 225 st toward Broadway. The Harlem Ship Canal runs parallel to the left. The creek crossed W 225 St here. This is also the spot where farmers, annoyed at having to pay tolls on the Kings Bridge to the north, built a free bridge. To the east, W 225 becomes the original Kingsbridge Road.
View north at W 225 St through garden at Marble Hill houses
View south at Marble Hill Houses toward W 225 St. The creek begins to turn right (west) here.
The creek crosses Broadway south of W 230 St.
The creek flows through the Marble Hill Playground. View north from W 228 St which is rising up the slope of Marble Hill.
The creek flows across Marble Hill Ave and through a U Haul lot. Just to the right at W 230 St, Marble Hill Ave becomes Kingsbridge Ave. This is the location of the King's Bridge that annoyed the farmers. Built in 1693, it was the first connection between Manhattan and the mainland, and I think the first toll bridge in North America.
View south on Tibbett Ave, where Tibbett's Brook emptied into the Spuyten Duyvil Creek.
View north at Johnson Ave. At the ridge, the creek turns south through PS 37.
View south at Johnson Ave. The creek flows past high school construction site. JFK high school in the distance. Three schools here. The creek's legacy may be education.
View south from Terrace View Ave on Marble Hill. The Harlem Ship Canal is past the trees on the left.
View from Marble Hill toward Inwood Hill cove, the only remaining water element of the creek. The penninsula attached to Inwood was originally part of the Bronx, the opposite of Marble Hill. It was the site of the Isaac Johnson Iron Foundry, built in the 1850s and a major arms supplier during the Civil War.
A side trip (another schlep) up the W 230 St stairway (3 levels). Driving over the Henry Hudson Bridge, I always assumed the apartment buildings along the parkway were typical throughout the neighborhood. But two blocks away, it's another world.
This borders Rivedale, right?
Yes, south of Riverdale
Thanks
That is ideal suburbia, especially since it's within city limits.
We have an urban archeologist. I wonder how he did his research.
Animal instinct.
Were you sniffing the ground?
More "secret" New York. You're a gem, Zippy.
I just found this very interesting site with more pics:
http://www.washington-heights.us/his...es/000471.html
Please, don't let WaHi catch on...
August 1, 2004
F.Y.I.
History Etched in Stone
By MICHAEL POLLAK
Q. I've always been mystified by the name Marble Hill. Does it have anything to do with actual marble?
A. Marble Hill, that 51-acre U-shaped chunk of Manhattan on the north side of the Harlem River, indeed sits on marble. A lawyer and developer, Darius G. Crosby, publicized the area in 1891 and is sometimes credited with coining the name. The Indians had called the area "the glistening place."
A bed of Inwood marble dating from the Cambrian or Ordovician period extends from the Bronx down into Manhattan and includes the hill. The dolomite marble, varying in color from white to gray to blue gray, is easily cut, one reason colonists used it for tombstones. By the 19th century, quarries were a major industry in northern Manhattan.
Marble Hill used to be physically connected to Manhattan, with Spuyten Duyvil Creek and the Harlem River flowing around it. The Harlem Ship Canal construction, which shifted the river and made Marble Hill an island in 1895, cut through several hills of marble. The blasted marble was used for landfill, and Spuyten Duyvil Creek was later filled in, thus anchoring the 51 acres to the mainland.
E-mail: fyi@nytimes.com
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
Although the creek was filled in, I assume there is still the source of the creek supplying water. Where does that water now go?
Interesting photos of New York. The side of New York people don't know and think of. People think of New York as all buildings and apartments. However there are houses and forests. I could imagine what New York looked like before the European settlers came, a forest.
Like the East River, the creek is really a tidal estuary that connects the Hudson and Harlem (another estuary) Rivers. There is no source.Originally Posted by AJphx
Tibbetts Brook does still flow, from Yonkers into the Harlem River Ship Canal. You can still see it in Van Cortlandt Park. South of the park, it was replaced by an underground storm drain.
Tibbetts Brook. You'll find out about the name Mosholu. Many people assume it's French.
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