Bronx River Parkway Reservation

Overview

This study will present a history of the development of the Bronx River Parkway Reservation (BRPR) between Bronx Park and Kensico Dam.(1) The parkway was built by authorization of the New York State Legislature as a cooperative project between Westchester County and New York City. Although its primary purpose was to reclaim the polluted Bronx River, the BRPR quickly set the standards for a new type of roadway development. The parkway demonstrated that modern motorways could combine beauty and efficiency. The careful coordination of landscape design and highway engineering produced a safe and efficient thoroughfare surrounded by a beautifully landscaped right-of-way offering informal recreational amenities. Safety and efficiency were improved by limiting access to the main parkway drive, replacing dangerous at-grade intersections with attractively designed grade separations, eliminating steep grades and sharp curves, and separating oncoming lines of traffic with broad landscaped medians. These safety features became standard elements of modern motorway construction. While these elements had been employed on a limited scale in previous developments, Bronx River Parkway designers applied them in a more comprehensive and systematic manner than had previously been attempted. The Bronx River Parkway’s design excellence and prominent location combined to make it an internationally renowned example of modern motorway design, recreational development, and regional planning. The Bronx River Parkway’s success encouraged Westchester County to embark on an ambitious parkway development program and spurred emulation on the part of other metropolitan park departments, state park programs, the National Park Service, and utilitarian highway departments throughout the United States and abroad.

Westchester County is located immediately north of New York City and is one of the metropolitan area’s largest counties, encompassing an area of 443 square miles. The earliest transportation routes in Westchester took advantage of the two major waterways that bordered the county, the Hudson River on the west and Long Island Sound on the east. In southern Westchester County, three distinct river valleys oriented in a north-south direction dominated the landscape and served as natural transportation routes for overland travel. These valleys, which included the Bronx River, became corridors for succeeding modes of transportation, directing the development of trails, dirt roads, railroads, and paved highways. The ease of transportation along this north-south axis facilitated Westchester County’s development northward from New York City.(2)

The Bronx River is 25 miles in length. Approximately 7 miles are in New York City and the remaining 18 extend into Westchester County. When the Bronx Parkway Commission began its deliberations at the beginning of the twentieth century, the first dam on the river was 2 miles inland from Long Island Sound. Between this point and Bronx Park, the river ran through a picturesque, timbered gorge. The river formed a series of attractive lakes through Bronx Park. Located at the south end of Bronx Park, the New York Zoological Park and Botanical Gardens attracted over 2 million visitors per year. The river flowed through more gentle terrain as it ran the 5 miles north to Bronxville. Continuing northward, the gradient became steeper with another heavily timbered gorge located between Greenburg and Scarsdale. Swamps, meadows, and upland fields characterized the river valley between White Plains and Valhalla.(3)

(1)The original Bronx River Parkway was eventually extended to the north and south, but these developments fall outside the scope of this report.
(2)Frank E. Sanchis, American Architecture: Westchester County, New York, Colonial to Contemporary (Croton-on-Hudson, NY: North River Press, 1977), 1-2.
(3)Jay Downer and James Owen, "Public Parks in Westchester County," in History of Westchester County New York. Vol. II, ed. Alvah P. French (New York and Chicago: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1925), 962.