The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which despite its name is a tidal strait, not a river, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens on Long Island from Manhattan Island and the Bronx, which is on the mainland.Hodges, Godfrey. "East River" in Jackson, pp.393–93
Because of its connection to Long Island Sound, the East River was once also known as the Sound River.Montrésor, John (1766). A plan of the city of New-York & its environs. London. The strait changes its direction of flow regularly, and is subject to strong fluctuations in its current, which are accentuated by its narrowness and variety of depths. The waterway is navigable for its entire length of , and was historically the center of maritime activities in the city.
Formation and description
Technically a drowned valley, like the other waterways around New York City,Burrows and Wallace, p.5 the strait was formed approximately 11,000 years ago at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation. The distinct change in the shape of the strait between the lower and upper portions is evidence of this glacial activity. The upper portion (from Long Island Sound to Hell Gate), running largely perpendicular to the glacial motion, is wide, meandering, and has deep narrow bays on both banks, scoured out by the glacier's movement. The lower portion (from Hell Gate to New York Bay) runs north–south, parallel to the glacial motion. It is much narrower, with straight banks. The bays that exist, as well as those that used to exist before being filled in by human activity, are largely wide and shallow.
The section known as "Hell Gate" – from the Dutch name meaning either "bright strait" or "clear opening", given to the entire river in 1614 by explorer Adriaen Block when he passed through it in his ship Tyger pp.419–20 – is a narrow, turbulent, and particularly treacherous stretch of the river. Tides from the Long Island Sound, New York Harbor and the Harlem River meet there, making it difficult to navigate, especially because of the number of rocky islets which once dotted it, with names such as "Frying Pan", "Pot, Bread and Cheese", "Hen and Chicken", "Heel Top"; "Flood"; and "Gridiron", roughly 12 islets and reefs in all,Eldredge & Horenstein (2014), p.91 all of which led to a number of shipwrecks, including HMS Hussar, a British frigate that sank in 1780 while supposedly carrying gold and silver intended to pay British troops. The stretch has since been cleared of rocks and widened.Wolfe, Gerard R., "Hell Gate and Hell Gate Bridge", in Jackson, pp.588–589 Washington Irving wrote of Hell Gate that the current sounded "like a bull bellowing for more drink" at half tide, while at full tide it slept "as soundly as an alderman after dinner". He said it was like "a peaceable fellow enough when he has no liquor at all, or when he has a skinful, but who, when half-seas over, plays the very devil." The tidal regime is complex, with the two major tides – from the Long Island Sound and from the Atlantic Ocean – separated by about two hours; and this is without consideration of the tidal influence of the Harlem River, all of which creates a "dangerous cataract", as one ship's captain put it.Eldredge & Horenstein (2014), pp.92–93
The river is navigable for its entire length of . In 1939 it was reported that the stretch from The Battery to the former Brooklyn Navy Yard near Wallabout Bay, a run of about , was deep, the long section from there, running to the west of Roosevelt Island, through Hell Gate and to Throg's Neck was at least deep, and then eastward from there the river was, at mean low tide, deep.
The broadness of the river's channel south of Roosevelt Island is caused by the dipping of the hardy Fordham gneiss underlying the island under the less strong Inwood marble which lies under the river bed. Why the river turns to the east as it approaches the three lower Manhattan bridges is geologically unknown.Eldredge & Horenstein (2014), pp.90–91
Islands Roosevelt Island, a long () and narrow () landmass, lies in the stretch of the river between Manhattan Island and the borough of Queens, roughly from the latitude of Manhattan's East 46th to 86th Streets. Nowadays named after an American president, in the 18th century it was called Blackwell Island. It splits the strait into the West Channel, dividing it from Manhattan, and the East Channel, dividing it from Long Island. The abrupt termination of the island on its north end is due to an extension of the 125th Street Fault. Politically, the island's constitute part of the borough of Manhattan. It is connected to Queens by the Roosevelt Island Bridge, to Manhattan by the Roosevelt Island Tramway, and to both boroughs by a subway station served by the F train. The Queensboro Bridge also runs across Roosevelt Island, and an elevator allowing both pedestrian and vehicular access to the island was added to the bridge in 1930, but elevator service was discontinued in 1955 following the opening of the Roosevelt Island Bridge, and the elevator was demolished in 1970. The island, which was formerly known as Blackwell's Island and Welfare Island before being renamed in honor of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, historically served as the site of a penitentiary and a number of hospitals; today, it is dominated by residential neighborhoods consisting of large apartment buildings and parkland (much of which is dotted with the ruins of older structures).
The largest land mass in the river south of Roosevelt Island is U Thant Island, an artificial islet created during the construction of the Steinway Tunnel (which currently serves the subway's 7 and <7> lines). Officially named Belmont Island after one of the tunnel's financiers, the landmass owes its popular name (after Burmese diplomat U Thant, former Secretary-General of the United Nations) to the efforts of a group associated with the guru Sri Chinmoy that held mediation meetings on the island in the 1970s. Today, the island is owned by New York State and serves as a migratory bird sanctuary that is closed to visitors.
Proceeding north and east from Roosevelt Island, the River's principal islands include Manhattan's Mill Rock, an island located about 1000 feet from Manhattan's East 96th Street; Manhattan's 520-acre Randalls and Wards Islands, two formerly separate islands joined by landfill that are home to a large public park, a number of public institutions, and the supports for the Triborough and the Hell Gate Bridges; the Bronx's Rikers Island, once under but now over Steinberg, p.214 following extensive landfill expansion after the island's 1884 purchase by the city as a prison farmSteinberg, p 148 and still home to New York City's massive and controversial primary jail complex; and North and South Brother Islands, both of which also constitute part of the Bronx.
Tributaries The Bronx River, Pugsley Creek, and Westchester Creek drain into the northern bank of the East River in the northern section of the strait. The Flushing River, historically known as Flushing Creek, empties into the strait's southern bank near LaGuardia Airport via Flushing Bay. Further west, Luyster Creek drains into the East River in Astoria, Queens.
North of Randalls Island, it is joined by the Bronx Kill. Along the east of Wards Island, at approximately the strait's midpoint, it narrows into a channel called Hell Gate, which is spanned by both the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (formerly the Triborough), and the Hell Gate Bridge. On the south side of Wards Island, it is joined by the Harlem River.
Newtown Creek on Long Island, which itself contained several tributaries, drains into the East River and forms part of the boundary between Queens and Brooklyn. Bushwick Inlet and Wallabout Bay on Long Island also drain into the strait on the Long Island side. The Gowanus Canal was built from Gowanus Creek, which emptied into the river.
Historically, there were other small streams which emptied into the river, though these and their associated wetlands have been filled in and built over. These small streams included the Harlem Creek, one of the most significant tributaries originating in Manhattan. Other streams that emptied into the East River included the Sawkill in Manhattan, Mill Brook in the Bronx, and Sunswick Creek in Queens.
History Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the land north of the East River was occupied by the Siwanoys, one of many groups of Algonquin-speaking Lenapes in the area. Those of the Lenapes who lived in the northern part of Manhattan Island in a campsite known as Konaande Kongh used a landing at around the current location of East 119th street to paddle into the river in canoes fashioned from tree trunks in order to fish.Burrows and Wallace, pp.5, 6–8
Dutch settlement of what became New Amsterdam began in 1623. Some of the earliest of the small settlements in the area were along the west bank of the East River on sites that had previously been Native American settlements. As with the Native Americans, the river was central to their lives for transportation for trading and for fishing. They gathered marsh grass to feed their cattle, and the East River's tides helped to power mills which ground grain to flour. By 1642 there was a ferry running on the river between Manhattan Island and what is now Brooklyn, and the first pier on the river was built in 1647 at Pearl and Broad Streets. After the British took over the colony in 1664, which was renamed "New York", the development of the waterfront continued, and a shipbuilding industry grew up once New York started exporting flour. By the end of the 17th century, the Great Dock, located at Corlear's Hook on the East River, had been built.
Narrowing the river Historically, the lower portion of the strait, which separates Manhattan from Brooklyn, was one of the busiest and most important channels in the world, particularly during the first three centuries of New York City's history. Because the water along the lower Manhattan shoreline was too shallow for large boats to tie up and unload their goods, from 1686 on – after the signing of the Dongan Charter, which allowed intertidal land to be owned and sold – the shoreline was "wharfed out" to the high-water mark by constructing retaining walls that were filled in with every conceivable kind of landfill: excrement, dead animals, ships deliberately sunk in place, ship ballast, and muck dredged from the bottom of the river. On the new land were built warehouses and other structures necessary for the burgeoning sea trade. Many of the "water-lot" grants went to the rich and powerful families of the merchant class, although some went to tradesmen. By 1700, the Manhattan bank of the river had been "wharfed-out" up to around Whitehall Street, narrowing the strait of the river.Steinberg, pp.23–26
After the signing of the Montgomerie Charter in the late 1720s, another 127 acres of land along the Manhattan shore of the East River was authorized to be filled-in, this time to a point 400 feet beyond the low-water mark; the parts that had already been expanded to the low water mark – much of which had been devastated by a coastal storm in the early 1720s and a nor'easter in 1723 – were also expanded, narrowing the channel even further. What had been quiet beach land was to become new streets and buildings, and the core of the city's sea-borne trade. This infilling went as far north as Corlear's Hook. In addition, the city was given control of the western shore of the river from Wallabout Bay south.Steinberg, pp.26–28; 34
American Revolution