164 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



fill it. There are to be 20 cables in 4 systems; each cable will 

 be about 14 inches diameter; the cables contain 371,195,750 feet of 

 steel wire, or about 70,302 miles of steel wire; total weight of iron and 

 steel in the bridge, 17,005 tons; total amount of masonry, 58,084 cubic 

 yards; total suspended weight, 9,651 tons; height of towers above 

 water, 280 feet. The bridge will leave the water-way of the river un- 

 touched." 



In early provincial times a tribe of Indians named the Wabingi, oc- 

 cupied the Highland, called by them Kettatenny Mountains. Their 

 principal settlement, designated Wickapy, was situated in the vicinity of 

 Anthony's Nose. a 



Four miles south of Peekskill lies Verplanck's Point. This territory 

 called by the Indians Meahagh, was bounded on the east by lands of 

 Appamagpogh and the creek Meanagh, on the south by the same creek, 

 on the west by the Hudson, and on the north by the creek Tammoesis. 



Prior to 1683 the territory of Meahagh belonged to Siechamthe great 

 sachem of Sachus and other Indians, a clan of the Mohegans or " En- 

 chanted Wolf Tribe," who sold the same to De Heer Stephanus van 

 Cortlandt. At the death of Stephanus it passed by will to his oldest son 

 Johannes second lord of the Manor of Cortlandt, and afterwards des- 

 cended by marriage to Philip Verplanck, from whom the neck acquired 

 its present appellation. This individual married Gertrude, only daugh- 

 ter and heiress of the above Johannes. 



In 1734, Verplanck's Point (consisting of one thousand acres) was 

 held by John Lent, who paid therefor the yearly rent of one pepper-corn 

 on the feast day of St. Michael the archangel. 



The Verplanck's subsequently sold the Point to John Henry and 

 others, for the sum of nearly $300,000. 



The Verplanck family descend from Abraham Jacobsen Verplanck, 

 of New Amsterdam, whose son, Gulian, was a wealthy merchant of 

 the same place in 1683. The son of Gulian was Philip Verplanck, of 

 Verplanck's Point. 



This branch of the family is now represented by Philip Verplanck, 

 Esq., of New Windsor, grandson of the last mentioned Philip. 



John Henry, Esq., held five hundred acres upon which is situated 

 the old Verplanck residence. The mansion of the late William Lyell, 



a Moulton's Hist, of New York, p. 271, see note. 



a Abrani Planck or Verplanck, was a farmer at Paulus noeck and one of the " Twelve 

 Men " under Geritom Kieft in 1&41. The "Twelve men "were all Hollanders or emigrants 

 from Ilolland." Brodhead'a Hist of the State of N. Y., vol. i. p. 317. The late venerable 

 Gulian C. Verplanck of New York who was born Aug. c, 17S6, and died March 18, 1S70, was of 

 this family. 



