370 The Story of The Bronx 



used for filling in came from the subway excavations a few 

 blocks above.* 



The canal at present extends 650 feet from the Harlem River 

 to 135th Street, where there is a lifting steel bridge, and six 

 hundred feet farther to 138th Street. It is lined with coal 

 elevators and bunkers. The accompanying view was taken 

 from the bridge at the first-named street. 



Adjoining the canal on the west and extending to Park 

 Avenue, with the Harlem River and 135th Street as its other 

 boundaries, is the Harlem Terminal of the Erie, Baltimore, 

 and Ohio, New Jersey Central, Philadelphia and Reading, 

 and Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroads. The 

 yard was opened for business on July 1, 1898, as an uptown 

 freight station for these roads for the collection and distribu- 

 tion of local freight. The capacity of the yard is one hundred 

 and fifty cars, which are brought on floats by way of the East 

 Rjver from the terminals at Jersey City and Hoboken. The 

 yard has no track connection with the Harlem Railroad, 

 which it almost adjoins, nor with the New York, New Haven, 

 and Hartford, a few blocks east. The yard occupies the site 

 that was suggested by the North Side Board of Trade as that 

 for a great union passenger station. 



The construction of the Coles bridge over the Harlem at 



Third Avenue led to the settlement of a small village, or 



hamlet, at its northern end, lying east of Third Avenue in 



the Borough. This was commonly known as Morrisania for 



many years, though later taking the name of North New York. 



By 1855, there was quite a number of small villages scattered 



about the ancient manor, then within the township of West 



• The author is indebted for the greater part of the above account to J. 

 Homer Hildreth, Esq., attorney for the owners of the canal, and to Albert 

 E. Davis, Esq., former president of the North Side Board of Trade, who 

 led the fight against the canal to a successful termination. 



