5 Boros: A History of Places

The Bronx River is approximately 24 miles long.  It flows from southern Westchester to the East River. Bronx River flowing through Bronx Park (1896) Museum of the City of New York It was named for colonial settler Jonas Bronck.  The Bronx River is the only fresh water river in New York City. The Bronx River originally sourced from the area of the current Kensico Reservoir in Westchester.  With the construction of the Kensico Dam, in 1885, the flow was limited to a small tributary stream as its source. Bronx River (1900) Library of Congress It flows into the Bronx at Bronx Park and continues through the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Zoo, and into the South Bronx.  It empties into the East River, separating the Hunt's Point and Soundview neighborhoods. Bronx River flowing (1900) Library of Congress The river was called Aquehung or "River of High Bluffs" by the Mohegan Indian Tribe who lived and fished along it.  In 1639, a 500-acre tr

Completed b y 1797 the area of Greenwich Street in lower Manhattan is planned, constructed, and land-filled.   By 1817 Washington Street becomes the westernmost avenue lined with piers, maritime stores, and basins and remaining waterfront property until the completion and opening of lower West Street in the early 1840s. In the 1850s with the conversion of Castle Clinton into the Castle Garden immigration station nearby, the wealthy began to desert the neighborhood and by the 1880s immigrants of Eastern Europe and the Syrian province began moving in. Little Syria is the former name of a neighborhood that once stretched from Battery Place up to Cedar Street and from Trinity Place to West Street, with  Washington Street serving as the Main Street of Syrian America . Selling cool drinks in Syrian Quarter Library Of Congress From the late 1800s until the 1940s construction of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, presently known as the Hug h L. Carey Tunnel, the  area was also known as