378 The Story of the Bronx 



The Southern Boulevard, laid out during the Tweed regime, 

 extends from Port Morris to Bronx Park at 181st Street. 

 It was lined with trees at first, but these have been sadly 

 neglected, so that most of them have died. The lower part is 

 given over to factories, the middle part, as far as Westchester 

 Avenue, still has more vacant lots than occupied ones; but 

 the section above Westchester Avenue is building up very 

 rapidly. This is due to the elevated portion of the subway, 

 which passes through the Boulevard. 



Port Morris was practically an island at high tide in the 

 olden days. Gouverneur Morris, Second, built a causeway 

 across the meadows, about on the line of 138th Street, so that 

 people and horses could pass over dry shod. This was in the 

 fifties of the last century; and it is said he did this principally 

 to give employment to some of the poor and distressed people 

 of the neighborhood, so that it was a case of practical charity. 



During the Revolution, the British frigate Hussar went 

 down off Port Morris, then called Stony Island. She was 

 laden with American prisoners and treasure, the latter, so 

 tradition says, the pay of the British army in New York. 

 Many companies have been formed to get the sunken treasure, 

 but more money has been sunk in these enterprises than has 

 been, or ever will be, recovered. Divers have brought to the 

 surface bits of the old hull, which are easily gotten, as the 

 iron work has all rusted away, a few coins, and various inter- 

 esting relics in the way of chain-shot, bullets, pieces of copper, 

 etc. ; but the treasure, if there be any, has thus far escaped 

 them. 



Lincoln Hospital lies near the Southern Boulevard at 141st 

 Street. Wilton was a small village to the west of this section 

 and was, in the sixties, a favorite place of residence for actors, 

 of whom there was quite a settlement. 



