The Story of Two Forgotten And Buried New York City Bridges
This is Kings Bridge connecting upper Manhattan to the Bronx and Westchester. The Kings Bridge was originally constructed in 1693 under a grant from the Crown and maintained by the Philipse family as a toll bridge until the revolution.
The toll was collected on every person, animal and vehicle crossing to the mainland excepting the King’s soldiers. At night the rates doubled. The bridge was reconstructed in 1713 and altered slightly a few times in the intervening 200 years.
Incredibly, this quaint early 18th century wooden relic was still in place over the Spuyten Duyvil Creek in the 1900s.
In this map made by the British in 1776 during the Revolutionary War, the mapmaker reversed the bridge names- Kings Bridge is labeled as Farmer’s and vice versa.
Corrected 1777 British War Map showing proper names & locations of Kings Bridge and Farmer’s Bridge by Claude Joseph Sauthier map via LOC
At 19 feet wide and only 68 feet long with 38 foot approaches, the wooden bridge had become obsolete with the building of the filling in of Spuyten Duyvil Creek. The present Kingsbridge Road in the Bronx has no connection with the Kings Bridge. The 1713 reconstructed Kings Bridge was diverted at present day Broadway at about 227th Street and crossed over the original path of Spuyten Duyvil Creek to Kingsbridge Avenue in the Bronx.
Kings Bridge in 1856
In 1908, the Spuyten Duyvil Creek west of the Kings Bridge was filled in. By 1913 the easterly portion of the creek was also filled in which rendered the structure unnecessary. By October of 1913 the planking of Kings Bridge had been removed and stone debris from the nearby refurbished Harlem Ship Canal Bridge was placed over the Kings Bridge to make one solid roadway.
Kings Bridge 1911 shortly before being permanently covered.
The Commissioner of Bridges turned over jurisdiction of the Kings Bridge to the Borough Presidents of the Bronx and Manhattan. On November 24, the Bronx Borough President took possession of the street that the bridge was located on and by 1916 the bridge was simply covered over. So technically, the Kings Bridge is still in existence – under landfill on Kingsbridge Avenue.
Farmer’s Bridge over Spuyten Duyvil Creek just prior to being filled in 1911
The nearby Farmers Bridge (also called Dykeman’s Bridge, Free Bridge, Queens Bridge) over Spuyten Duyvil Creek had a similar fate. It was located near the swamp and was completed in 1759 by Jacob Dykeman (now spelled Dyckman) on the Manhattan side and Johannes Vermilyea on the Bronx side as a toll saving alternate to the Kings Bridge for the farmers of Westchester County.
Farmer’s Bridge over Spuyten Duyvil Creek in 1861
The bridge was built without the authority of the Crown and contrary to custom was made free to all travelers. The regrading of Muscoota Street (225th Street) from Broadway connecting to old Kingsbridge Road covered the Farmers Bridge in 1911.
At some point in the future work crews will be doing road repairs and they will stumble upon one or both of these forgotten bridges. Won’t they be surprised!
Very interesting historical documentation, My interest is that my 7th Great Grandfather Sgt Walter Ozro Wooster 6th Conn Line, was wounded during the battle 26 Feb 1779. So many historical writings,books and Genealogy had him storming the fort and taking down the British Flag. That is what I am trying to research. The Forts did go back and forth controlled by both sides. Research has Sgt Walter on the pension records, as well as mentioned i literature from the 1850’s mentioning the flag.
As a Revoluntionary War soldier, he was in almost all the battles in Connecticut and New York. He was promoted to Orderly Sergeant and held that rank until discharged. He lead the charge in storming Horseneck on Long Island Sound on 26 Feb 1779, was the first man entering the fort and then he hauled down the British flag. He was severely wounded by a musket ball in the shoulder at the engagement at King’s Bridge and he participated in the storming of Stony Point July 15, 1779.
From a historical page would like to find the actual link and documentation to this story.
I personally was reading about King’s bridge in David McCullough’s 1776. I wondered where it was located today. As with Boston, there was been so much geoengineering since revolutionary era that much of the descriptions don’t make much sense. Boston was nearly an island in those days!
Looks like both bridges are under Marble Hill today, from where tbey are on the 1777 map,
This is cool stuff. I was just reading about someone making the crossing at King’s Bridge in the book The Pioneers by David McCullough. Glad to have this page to figure out where it is.
I was just reading about these bridges in “Valiant Ambition.”