Bronx Kill - Randalls Island - New York City

Randalls Island Connector north thru Pier 15 jeh

The Bronx Kill is a narrow

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

delineating the southernmost extent of

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

. It separates the Bronx from Randalls Island. It connects the

Harlem River The Harlem River is an tidal strait in New York City, flowing between the Hudson River and the East River and separating the island of Manhattan from the Bronx on the United States mainland. The northern stretch, also called the Spuyten Duyvi ...

to the

East River The East River is a saltwater Estuary, tidal estuary or strait in New York City. The waterway, which is not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island, ...

History

Originally, the Bronx Kill was a sizeable waterway, approximately in width. As of 1917, there were also plans by the War Department to dredge a deep channel, in width, to improve navigation and reduce tidal currents. For this reason, in the early 20th century the

New York Connecting Railroad The New York Connecting Railroad or NYCR is a rail line in the borough (New York City), borough of Queens in New York City. It links New York City and Long Island by rail directly to the North American mainland. Amtrak, CSX, Canadian Pa ...

built a movable bridge across the Bronx Kill on the approach to the Hell Gate Bridge. Similarly, the truss bridge of the Triborough Bridge across the Bronx Kill was designed to be convertible to a lift bridge. However, much of the Bronx Kill was later filled in to expand the parkland on Randalls Island.

Navigation

The Bronx Kill offers a venue for kayakers and other human-powered boaters without the worry of larger vessel traffic. Canoe and kayak expeditions through the waterway begin on the Harlem River, near the Third Avenue Bridge. Crossings must be well timed for the tides, to ensure both the correct current direction and sufficient water height: at low water, parts of the Bronx Kill entirely bottom out, revealing muddy stretches, and assorted debris. There is also low air draft under the Randalls Island Connector. Consequently, no commercial vessels navigate the kill, with local businesses mostly opting instead for road and rail transport, including the Oak Point Link along its north bank.

21st century

In 2001, the

New York Power Authority The New York Power Authority (NYPA) is a public benefit corporation owned by the State of New York and is the largest state public power utility in the United States. It provides some of the lowest-cost electricity in the nation, operating 16 ge ...

offered to construct a pedestrian bridge linking the Bronx with Randalls Island—part of the agency's remuneration to the community for building two new power plants in the

South Bronx The South Bronx is an area of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Bronx, Concourse, Mott Haven, Bronx, Mott Haven, Melrose, B ...

. That plan, however, fell by the wayside when local officials argued that an improved Triborough Bridge path would be sufficient. The state authority instead paid for energy efficiency measures in the borough as a whole, including a

green roof A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage ...

on the Bronx County Courthouse. At the time, the two sidewalks of the Triborough Bridge's Bronx Kill span were connected to one long ramp at the Randalls Island end. This provides difficult access. Following years of negotiation for land with the operators of the Harlem River Yards on the north bank of the Kill, the Randalls Island Connector bridge was constructed across the Kill. The $6 million bridge, located underneath

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's Hell Gate Bridge, provides pedestrian and bicycle access between the island and the Port Morris neighborhood of the Bronx and to the South Bronx Greenway. The connector opened in November 2015. A 2006 plan for a

water park A water park (also waterpark, water world, or aquapark) is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming ...

—the first in the nation for a large city—on the northwest corner of Randalls Island was controversial. Announced by the Giuliani administration as a $48 million, project, the proposal expanded to encompass at a projected cost of $168 million before being cancelled in 2007.

References

External links

Friends of Brook Park
{{coord, 40, 47, 57, N, 73, 55, 11, W, display=title Randalls and Wards Islands Straits of New York County, New York Straits of Bronx County, New York Port Morris, Bronx

History

Navigation

21st century

See also

References

External links