Early Means of Communication 221 



road appears on the military map of the British operations in 

 Westchester County in 1776, as do most of the others, but all 

 with considerable inaccuracy. This highway, called Pelham 

 Road, joins the Eastern Boulevard, or Shore Road, below 

 Pelham Bridge, on the boundary line of Pelham Bay Park. 

 From near the Bartow station of the Suburban branch of the 

 New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, a road leads 

 down to Pell's Point (Rodman's Neck) and City Island, as 

 it did in ancient days. The most northerly of the roads in 

 this section is the "Split Rock," or Prospect Hill, road, con- 

 necting the Shore Road with the old Boston Road by means 

 of Wolf's Lane in the town of Pelham. It was the route of 

 the retiring Americans during the battle of Pell's Point. 



The principal roads of the Borough, which existed a century 

 or more ago, have thus been sketched. We may say, generally, 

 that in the earlier days the roads radiated from two points: 

 the ancient wading place, ferry, or bridge at Fordham, or 

 Kingsbridge, and from the borough-town of Westchester. 

 All travellers from Manhattan Island to the mainland had to 

 cross Spuyten Duyvil Creek, from which the roads radiated 

 like the ribs of an open fan — to Yonkers or Albany, to the 

 Mile Square, to Boston or nearer eastern points, to West 

 Farms, or to Westchester. The borough-town of Westchester 

 was also the county-seat until 1759; and, in consequence, 

 roads from all sections of the county led to it. By the above 

 date, the upper county had become so settled as to make it a 

 hardship for the freeholders to go to the southern extremity 

 at Westchester. The Provincial Assembly, therefore, trans- 

 ferred the county-seat to White Plains, a point nearer the 

 centre of population as well as of area. Through the different 

 generations, the names of the same roads have changed quite 

 frequently, so that it is sometimes quite difficult to trace some 



