222 The Story of The Bronx 



of them under their various aliases. The Highbridge Road, 

 for instance, could not have been called such until after the 

 construction of High Bridge (1839-42), yet it existed in very 

 early times. After 18 13, a part of it was called Macomb's 

 Dam Road, and so spoken of in deeds and records. The map 

 of the roads accompanying this chapter, though not absolutely 

 exact as to scale, is near enough to give an idea of the general 

 direction of the principal highways. 



It is a cardinal principle of the common law that every 

 landholder is entitled to get to and from his land. In this 

 way, as more farms were occupied, there grew up a multitude 

 of private lanes and roads, of which many in time became 

 public highways, maintained at the public expense, or by tolls, 

 if maintained by the owners of abutting property or by other 

 persons. This permission ' ' to hang gates ' ' appears in a number 

 of cases in the records of the highway commissions. 



Most of the roads of the Borough began first as private 

 roads to get to property. After 1850, when the newly-built 

 railroads had brought in such a population as to admit of the 

 incorporation of villages, the laying out of highways became 

 more systematic in each locality. That there was no general 

 system can be understood readily by a glance at the map of 

 the Borough as it is to-day, with its intricacies of winding 

 streets and avenues going apparently in all directions. Of 

 course, the topography of the Borough has affected the course 

 of the streets to a very large degree. One of the greatest 

 problems that confronted the Commissioner of Highways of 

 The Bronx, or of Street Improvements, as he was officially 

 known, was to whip the chaos of roads into some sort of 

 systematic arrangement. This is being done gradually in 

 accordance with a plan which has been developing since 

 January 1. 1893, and which has been completed only since 



