Cuban Ledge is a

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock o ...

or islet composed chiefly of

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...

and small rocks in

Eastchester Bay Eastchester Bay is a sound between City Island and the mainland Bronx in New York City, New York. Technically, it is not a bay, since it is open to larger bodies of water at both ends. The northern end connects via a narrow channel to Pelham ...

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, in Long Island Sound. It is located between

Rodman's Neck Rodman's Neck (formerly Ann Hook's Neck) refers to a peninsula of land in the New York City borough of the Bronx that juts out into Long Island Sound. The southern third of the peninsula is used as a firing range by the New York City Police Depar ...

and

Country Club A country club is a privately owned club, often with a membership quota and admittance by invitation or sponsorship, that generally offers both a variety of recreational sports and facilities for dining and entertaining. Typical athletic offe ...

in Eastchester Bay and is visible only during periods of low tide. It is a hazard to boats, and is marked with a signal tower.

Origin and name

Several stories have been circulated regarding how the Cuban Ledge formed and got its name. According to some accounts, it was formed in 1898 when sailors dumped cargo rocks overboard from a ship that was abandoned when its crew left for

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

to fight in the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (cloc ...

. Another version of the story indicates that it was created when a large

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

carrying sand and gravel ran aground on a shoal. A salvage crew was mounted there and the barge was rescued, but much of the sand and gravel it was carrying needed to be removed in order to aid the rescue. The workers dumped the sand and rock overboard to get the barge off the shoal, thus forming the reef. One story of its name stipulates that a ship by the name of ''Cuban Lady'' ran aground on the reef in the 1880s. Other theories suggest that the ledge resembles the outline of the island of Cuba.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuban Ledge Long Island Sound Geography of the Bronx

Origin and name

See also

References