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Bronx |
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Address
City Hall
Bronx, NY 10007
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Phone
212-NEW-YORK |
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 The Bronx is one of the five boroughs of New York City in the United States. It is coterminous with Bronx County of the State of New York. It is the northernmost borough of New York City. The Bronx is located northeast of Manhattan. It is the only borough on the North American mainland, located south of Westchester County. It also includes several small islands in the East River and Long Island Sound. GR6. The Harlem River separates The Bronx from the island of Manhattan.
The Bronx takes its name from Bronck's Farms, after an early settler (1641) in the area, Jonas Bronck, a Swedish-Dutch sea captain, whose 500 acre (2 km²) farm lay between the Harlem River and the Aquahung, which now bears his name. The borough's name is officially The Bronx, but the county's name is officially just Bronx, without the definite article. According to a 2003 United States Census Bureau estimate, the population of Bronx County was approximately 1,363,198.
The Bronx is one of the five boroughs of New York City in the United States. It is coterminous with Bronx County of the State of New York. It is the northernmost borough of New York City. The Bronx is located northeast of Manhattan. It is the only borough on the North American mainland, located south of Westchester County. It also includes several small islands in the East River and Long Island Sound. GR6. The Harlem River separates The Bronx from the island of Manhattan.
The Bronx takes its name from Bronck's Farms, after an early settler (1641) in the area, Jonas Bronck, a Swedish-Dutch sea captain, whose 500 acre (2 km²) farm lay between the Harlem River and the Aquahung, which now bears his name. The borough's name is officially The Bronx, but the county's name is officially just Bronx, without the definite article. According to a 2003 United States Census Bureau estimate, the population of Bronx County was approximately 1,363,198.
History
The territory now contained within Bronx County was originally part of Westchester County, an original county of New York State. The present Bronx County was contained in four towns: Westchester, Yonkers, Eastchester, and Pelham. In 1846, a new town, West Farms, was created by secession from Westchester; in turn, in 1855, the town of Morrisania seceded from West Farms. In 1873, the town of Kingsbridge (roughly corresponding to the modern Bronx neighborhoods of Kingsbridge, Riverdale, and Woodlawn) seceded from Yonkers.
In 1874, the western portion of the present Bronx County, consisting of the towns of Kingsbridge, West Farms, and Morrisania, was transferred to New York County, and in 1895 the Town of Westchester and portions of Eastchester and Pelham, were transferred to New York County. City Island, known as New York City's only nautical community, voted to secede from Westchester County and join New York County in 1896. In 1898, New York City amalgamated, with the Bronx as one of five boroughs (though still within New York County). In 1914, those parts of the then New York County which had been annexed from Westchester County were constituted as the new Bronx County (while also keeping its status as one of the five boroughs of the city).
The Bronx underwent rapid growth after World War I. Extensions of the New York City Subway contributed to the increase in population as thousands of immigrants flooded the Bronx, resulting in a major boom in residential construction. Among these groups, many Irish settled here. Author Willa Cather, Pierre Lorillard who made a fortune on tobacco sales, and inventor Jordan Mott were famous for settling the land. In addition, French, German and Polish immigrants moved into the Borough. The Jewish population also increased notably during this time and many synagogues are still evident throughout the borough (although a good portion of these have been converted to other uses).
In the prohibition days, bootleggers and gangs ran rampant in the Bronx. Mostly Polish and Italian immigrants smuggled in the illegal whiskey. By 1926, the Bronx was noted for its high crime rate and its many speakeasies. Mayor Jimmy Walker states: "The Manhattan Polak is very different from the Bronx Polak. The Manhattan Polak would smuggle in the illegal whiskey secretly so as the cops aren't on 'em or don't see 'em a mile away. In the Bronx, the Polaks don't give a lick if they spotted with it. They'd pull out their guns as quick as lightning and the cops would be dead men in less than a second."
After the 1930s, the Polish immigrant population in the Bronx decreased as a result of better living conditions in other states. The German population followed suit in the 1940s and so did many Italians in the 1950s, leaving a thriving Hispanic and African-American population which would continue to live and dominate in the Bronx to this day.
During the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s, the Bronx went into an era of sharp decline in quality of life. Many factors have been put forward by historians and other social scientists. They include the theory that urban renewal projects in the borough (such as Robert Moses' Cross Bronx Expressway) destroyed existing low-density neighborhoods in favor of roads that produced urban sprawl as well as high-density housing projects. Another factor may have been the shift by insurance companies and banks to stop offering financial services to the Bronx and other working-class industrial areas (the "Rustbelt") in favor of the booming suburbs in "the Sunbelt"— a process known as redlining.
For a period, a wave of arson overtook the borough's apartment buildings, with competing theories as to why. Some point to the heavy traffic and use of illicit drugs among the area's poor as causing them to be inclined to scam the city's benefits for burn-out victims as well as the Section 8 housing program. Others believe landlords decided to burn their buildings before their insurance policies expired and were not renewed. After the destruction of nearly half of the buildings in the South Bronx, the arsons all but ended during the tenure of Mayor Ed Koch with aftereffects still felt into the early 1990s.
Landmarks
The Bronx's attractions include Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees baseball club of the American League; the Bronx Zoo, Bronx High School of Science, DeWitt Clinton High School, Morris Park, the New York Botanical Garden, Wave Hill, Little Italy on Arthur Avenue, Walton High School, Fordham University and Manhattan College. It includes two of the largest parks in NYC, Pelham Bay Park and Van Cortlandt Park. Pelham Bay Park also has a large man made public beach called Orchard Beach created by Robert Moses.
The Bronx also has The Hall of Fame for Great Americans: a national landmark which overlooks the Harlem and Hudson Rivers. It was designed by the renowned architect Stanford White.
The Bronx is also the only Borough that has a freshwater river (the Bronx River) running through it. A smaller river, the Hutchinson River, passes through the northeast Bronx to empty into Eastchester Bay.
Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City. Opened in 1863, at a time when The Bronx was still considered as being out in "the country." Built on gentle, rolling hills, its tree-lined roads provide a beautiful setting in today's bustling city.
Edgar Allan Poe spent the last years of his life, from 1846 to 1849, in The Bronx at Poe Cottage, now located at Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse. A small wooden farmhouse built about 1812, the cottage once commanded unobstructed vistas over the rolling Bronx hills to the shores of Long Island.
The Bronx now has the distinction of being the Birthplace of Hip-hop music, circa 1973.
Though it has a great deal of attractions, the Bronx is known for being particularly "anti-tourist", not so much in the sense of hostility to outsiders but insofar as its reputation nationally keeps tourists to New York as far from the borough as possible. This characteristic is actually what many in the New York area actually enjoy about visiting the Bronx; it has been claimed that the Little Italy on Arthur Avenue is more authentic than the more famous Little Italy in Manhattan on Mulberry Street.
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