The Bronx has been the northernmost borough of New York City since January 10, 1874. It aligns with Bronx County, the fourth most populous county in New York State.
By car
The following highways lead to the Bronx:
Interstate Highway 87 (from Plattsburgh, NY via Albany, NY, West
Nyack, NY, Yonkers, NY to Bronx)
Interstate Highway 95 (from
Miami, FL, Savannah, GA, Richmond, VA, Washington, D.C.,
Baltimore, ML and Newark, NJ via George Washington Bridge,
Manhattan and Bronx to New Rochelle, NY, New Haven, CT, Boston,
MA , Portland, ME to New Brunswick, Canada)
Interstate
Highway 278 (from Elizabeth via Staten Island and Brooklyn to
Bronx)
State Route 9A (from Yonkers, NY via Bronx to
Manhattan)
Bronx River Parkway (from Bronxville, NY via Mount
Vernon to Bronx)
Hutchinson River Parkway (from Rye, NY to
Bronx via New Rochelle, NY)
The total area of the Bronx is 148.7 square kilometers; of this,
108.9 square kilometers is land and 39.9 square kilometers (about 26
percent) is water.
The Bronx is separated to the west by the
Hudson River from Bergen County, New Jersey, and to the southwest by the
Harlem River from the island of Manhattan. In the southeast, the East
River forms the border with Queens, and the Long Island Sound separates
the Bronx from Nassau County on Long Island. The borough borders
Westchester County to the north.
Although the New York borough of
Marble Hill is on the mainland and was treated as part of the Bronx for
the distribution of zip codes (ZIP code) by the United States Postal
Service, it is part of Manhattan.
The Bronx River originates in
Westchester County and flows through the borough before finally emptying
into the East River. The Hutchinson River runs through the East Bronx
and empties into Eastchester Bay.
The Bronx is the only borough
of New York City that lies almost entirely on the North American
mainland. It also includes several small islands in the East River and
Long Island Sound.
The Bronx has a population of approximately 1.4 million (2009),
making it the second smallest of New York's five boroughs after Staten
Island. Annual population growth is 0.5 percent (2000–2009 average).
Overall, the population of the Bronx is very multicultural. Due to
continued high levels of immigration, 41 percent of all residents today
were born outside the United States, with most immigrants coming from
the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Jamaica, sub-Saharan Africa and Kosovo.
Looking at the different boroughs of the Bronx individually, however,
the composition of the population appears less diverse. Many parts of
the city – and even more so the individual blocks – are dominated by
certain population groups or groups of origin, which is tantamount to
clear ethnic and social segregation. Like many neighborhoods in New
York, the borough reflects the history of the various waves of
immigrants in the city: At the end of the 19th century, numerous
Italians and Irish came, at the beginning of the 20th century Eastern
European Jews followed, during the Great Migration in the 1920s
Afro-Americans, who soon came to dominate the district, eventually
becoming immigrants from Puerto Rico and Latin America in the last
decades of the 20th century.
Hispanics make up 52 percent of the
population in the Bronx. With a share of 23 percent, Puerto Ricans form
the largest group of origin overall, a further 16 percent are Dominicans
and 5 percent Mexicans. African Americans and immigrants from the
Caribbean and Africa make up the second large demographic group at 31
percent. Among non-Hispanic whites, who make up a relatively small
minority at 12 percent of the total population, Italians and Irish are
by far the largest groups. Regardless of national origin, about half of
whites identify as Jewish. Besides these and a small Protestant
minority, most of the residents are Catholics. In the Bronx, Spanish (46
percent) and English (44 percent) are spoken almost equally.
In 1639, the Swedish-born settler Jonas Bronck (* around 1600; †
1643) was the first European to settle with his family in the area of
today's Bronx. Subsequent Dutch and English settlers soon referred to
the land he acquired in the area as "Bronck's Land" and to announce a
visit there, people said at the time: "We are going to the Bronck's".
The current spelling of the name was first used in 1874, when the area
originally part of Westchester County was made a separate county; the
article prefix has been retained.
Especially in the years after
1900, the area was rapidly urbanized and developed and experienced its
first economic peak. After the Great Depression, the Bronx was a
middle-class home in the 1940s. However, in the aftermath of World War
II, more and more of the former residents of European descent (see
above) moved away and the Bronx became a working-class and slum area.
From the 1960s, the Bronx became known worldwide for being a social
hot spot with a high crime rate. Gang crime, auto theft, drugs and
robberies were commonplace during the day, at least in the southern
Bronx (South Bronx). As in the entire city of New York, crime in the
Bronx also fell significantly from the 1990s, so that the conditions of
the 1970s and 1980s are largely a thing of the past today. The number of
crimes committed in the Bronx fell by 73 percent from 1990 to 2007, and
the number of robberies per day fell from 49 to 13. What is little known
is that the Bronx borough is not only home to cheap rental and public
housing, but also residential areas of the middle class like Spuyten
Duyvil. Yet, overall, only around 20 percent of Bronx households are
homeowners, which is extremely low for the United States. The Bronx can
be described as Manhattan's "dormitory town" because, with a population
of over 1.3 million, it only has around 220,000 jobs and at the same
time 87,000 one-person companies.
The Bronx fire in 2017 claimed
12 lives and that of 2022 killed 17.
Away from the U.S. Highway 1 is Lorillard Snuff Mill (aka Old Snuff
Mill). The historic snuff mill was listed on the National Register of
Historic Places as monument number 77000935 on December 22, 1977 and is
designated a National Historic Landmark.
Eight locations have
National Historic Landmark status. A total of 66 structures and sites in
the county are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as of
February 17, 2018.
The origins of hip-hop and breakdance developed here in the late
1960s due to the Afro- and Puerto-American population. The Yankee
Stadium area is characterized by numerous Hispanic restaurants, where
you can find Caribbean specialties such as the popular mofongos, a type
of large dumpling that can also be filled with meat.
There are
numerous opportunities for bargain shopping in the Bronx, such as on
Fordham Road, which stretches through the entire Bronx.
The Bronx
is also a very popular location for the American film industry. More
than 80 films have been shot there since the 1950s, including The
Wanderers.
The Bronx's most famous sports venue is Yankee Stadium on 161st Street, which regularly hosts New York Yankees baseball games and New York City FC soccer games.
Bronx Zoo
The Bronx Zoo, whose full name is "International
Wildlife Conservation Park", is a zoological garden in New York. The zoo
was founded in 1899. Covering more than 300 hectares, it is the largest
zoo in New York and the largest city zoo in the United States. The New
York Botanical Garden, which adjoins to the north, is also part of the
zoo.
More than 4300 animals belonging to 765 different species
live in the park. The division was made according to geographic aspects.
Starting in the north at the Rainey Gate Entrance, a clockwise tour
takes visitors through the following continents: North America, Asia,
Africa and South America. The Bronx Zoo features many animal species
that are now extinct in the wild.
Heinrich Heine Monument
The
Heinrich Heine Monument, also known as the Lorelei Fountain in English,
is a fountain made of white Lasa marble and dedicated to the memory of
the German poet and writer Heinrich Heine. The memorial was originally
intended to be erected in Heine's hometown of Düsseldorf. However,
anti-Semitic and nationalist agitation in the German Reich prevented the
memorial for Heine's 100th birthday from being completed and inaugurated
in 1897. Instead, it was unveiled on July 8, 1899 in the presence of
sculptor Ernst Herter in the Bronx, New York. The memorial stands at the
south end of Joyce Kilmer Park at 161st Street and the Grand Concourse
across from a District Court.
Poe Cottage
Edgar Allan Poe's
last home is now a restored museum open to the public. He lived in the
then suburb of Fordham from 1846 to 1849. This is where his wife and
cousin Virginia Clemm Poe, the model for his Annabel Lee, died. Poe
Cottage was moved 140 meters from its original location in 1913. It is
located across from Poe Park on Kingsbridge Road in the Bronx.
Grand Concourse
For architecture enthusiasts, the numerous Art Deco
buildings along the Grand Concourse are of interest. This north-south
main connection, which was planned based on the Paris model of the
Champs-Élysées, was tunneled under by a subway ("Concourse Line") in the
1920s and 1930s, followed by a construction boom in Art Deco and
Streamline Moderne style. In addition to theatres, hotels and public
buildings (courthouses), e.g. countless elegant residences.
Other
parks
Bronx Park
Croton Park
Woodlawn Cemetery
Pelham Bay
Park
Saint Raymond's Cemetery
Van Cortland Park
Wave Hill
The Bronx is one of the most underdeveloped counties in the United States. Annual per capita income is $17,464, well below the national average of $27,466. At 10.3 percent, the unemployment rate is also significantly higher than in the United States as a whole (6.4 percent). At 27.8 percent, the proportion of people living below the poverty line in the Bronx is more than double the American average (13.2 percent). In addition, wealth is very unequally distributed among the various population groups.
The Bronx is served by the lines NYCS-bull-trans-1-hr.svg,
NYCS-bull-trans-2-hr.svg, NYCS-bull-trans-4-hr.svg, NYCS-bull-trans-5-
Std.svg (Express), NYCS-bull-trans-6-hrs.svg, NYCS-bull-trans-B-hrs.svg
and NYCS-bull-trans-D-hrs.svg of the New York City Subway in North South
direction and is thus connected to Manhattan to the south. Most of the
subways in the Bronx are elevated elevated trains. Depending on which of
the 71 subway stations in the Bronx you start from, Midtown Manhattan
can be reached in about 30 to 40 minutes. The northern line terminus is
up to 20 kilometers from Midtown Manhattan. Some lines operate as an
express in sections, passing through numerous stations to keep the
travel time to the city center as short as possible. The subway runs 24
hours a day. East-West connections within the Bronx are served by
numerous city bus routes.
NYC Ferry operates the Soundview Route
(SV) serving ferry docks in the Soundview (Clason Point) and Throgs Neck
(Ferry Point Park) neighborhoods. From there you can access several
docks in Manhattan and the Pier 11 Ferry Junction in Lower Manhattan.
The borough of The Bronx is divided into 12 community districts,
which in turn are divided into 59 neighborhoods.
See:
Administrative divisions of New York City
Borough Presidents
The Borough President has been the elected head of the borough since
1898:
1898-1909 Louis F.Haffen
1909-1910 John F Murray
1910-1914 Cyrus C Miller
1914-1918 Douglas Mathewson
1918-1934
Henry Bruckner
1934-1962 James J Lyons
1962-1966 Joseph F.
Periconi
1966-1970 Herman Badillo
1970-1979 Robert Abrams
1979-1987 Stanley Simon
1987-2002 Fernando Ferrer
2002-2009 Adolfo
Carrion
since 2009 Ruben Diaz Jr.