Ferries and Bridges 207 



Manhattan, to the low ground at the junction of Sedgwick 

 Avenue and Fordham Road. Preliminary surveys were made 

 as early as 1902, plans were drawn by the Department of 

 Bridges, and the contracts were let for the superstructure 

 April 27, 1905. The bridge cost #821,000, and was opened to 

 the public on January 8, 1908. It is called the University 

 Heights Bridge. 



This bridge is almost on the site of a foot-bridge erected 

 about 1850, connecting Dyckman's meadows and Fordham 

 Landing. This was built on piles driven into the bed of the 

 river, which was not more than nine feet deep at this point. 

 It was a public bridge, fitted with a draw to allow of the 

 passage of boats, of which the Harlem River steamboats Tiger 

 Lily, Trumpeter, and Osseo became the most frequent passers- 

 by after the line was established about 1855, for the purpose 

 of keeping open the navigation of the river, as well as for the 

 conveyance of passengers and freight. Their landing-place 

 was at an ancient stone house, called the "Century House," 

 a few rods above on the Manhattan side — this was the old 

 Jan Nagel house of colonial days. In later days, the foot- 

 bridge gave access to the railroad station at Fordham Landing. 

 The deepening of the channel of the river and the opening of 

 the ship canal caused the removal of the old bridge, though a 

 few of the piles which supported it, were standing on the Man- 

 hattan side less than ten years ago. 



The other bridges spanning the Harlem River and connect- 

 ing the boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx are private 

 property belonging to the railroads. They are the Second 

 Avenue, or Suburban Rapid Transit, bridge; the Harlem, or 

 New York Central, Railroad bridge at Park Avenue; the 

 Putnam Railroad bridge at Eighth Avenue; and the New 

 York Central Railroad bridge at the mouth of Spuyten Duyvil 



