Bronx, the, borough of New York City,
coextensive with Bronx co. (2020 pop. 1,472,654), land area 42 sq mi (106 sq
km), SE N.Y. The name comes from Jonas Bronck, who purchased the land from
Native Americans in 1639. New York City acquired the Bronx, which had been
the lower portion of Westchester co., in two stages in 1874 and 1895. With
the consolidation of New York City in 1898 it became a separate borough; the
county was not organized until 1914. The only mainland borough of New York
City, it comprises the southern part of a peninsula bordered on the W by the
Hudson River, on the SW by the Harlem River (which separates it from
Manhattan), on the S by the East River, and on the E by Long Island Sound.
Among the many bridges linking the borough to Manhattan and Queens are the
Henry Hudson, the Robert F. Kennedy (formerly Triborough), the
Bronx-Whitestone, and the Throgs Neck. The borough is also connected to
Manhattan by subway lines. With the extension of mass transit to the Bronx
in the early 20th cent. the population of the sparsely settled area rapidly
increased, becoming home to many immigrants from Eastern and Southern
Europe. After World War II, African-American and Hispanic residents became
the majority, and there are growing African and Caribbean communities. The
declining local economy led to a deterioration of housing, and the term
“South Bronx” became synonymous with urban blight. Attempts at
renovation have been successful in many neighborhoods that had been
abandoned for much of the 1970s and 1980s. Although the Bronx is no longer
an extensive shipping, warehouse, and factory center, the Hunts Point
Terminal Market is the major wholesale produce center for New York City.
Large areas of the borough are set aside for parks, notably Bronx Park, with
the New York Zoological Park (Bronx Zoo) and the New York Botanical Garden;
Van Cortlandt Park, and Pelham Bay Park, with Orchard Beach on Long Island
Sound. Among the institutions of higher learning in the Bronx are Fordham
Univ., Manhattan College, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva
Univ., the New York State Maritime College, and Herbert H. Lehman College of
the City Univ. of New York. Other points of interest are Yankee Stadium
(1923) and the Edgar Allan Poe cottage (1812).
See L. Ultan, The Beautiful Bronx (1982); L. Ultan and G. Hermalyn, The Bronx in the Innocent Years (1985); E. Gonzalez et al., Building a Borough (1986).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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