Spuyten Duyvil (, ) is a neighborhood of

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. It is bounded on the north by Riverdale, on the east by Kingsbridge, on the south by the Harlem River, and on the west by the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

,Wolfe, Gerald R. "Spuyten Duyvil neighborhood" in although some consider it to be the southernmost part of Riverdale.

Etymology

The area is named after Spuyten Duyvil Creek. "Spuyten Duyvil" may be literally translated as "Spouting Devil" or ''Spuitende Duivel'' in Dutch, a reference to the strong and wild tidal currents found at that location. It may also be translated as "Spewing Devil" or "Spinning Devil", or more loosely as "Devil's Whirlpool" or "Devil's Spate." ''Spui'' is a Dutch word involving outlets for water. Historian Reginald Pelham Bolton, however, argues that the phrase means "spouting meadow", referring to a fresh-water spring at Inwood Hill. An additional translation, "to spite the Devil" or "in spite of the devil", was popularized by a story in

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories " Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Lege ...

's '' A Knickerbocker's History of New York'' published in 1809. Set in the 1660s, the story tells of trumpeter Antony Van Corlear summoned by "Peter de Groodt" to warn settlers of an attempted British invasion, with Corlear attempting to swim across the " Harlean river" from Fort Amsterdam to the Bronx mainland "in spite of the devil (spyt den duyvel)", Irving writes. The treacherous current pulled him under and he lost his life. This resulted in the name "Spuyten Duyvil" for "the adjoining promontory, which projects into the Hudson." An extensive appendix t
''Studies in Etymology and Etiology: With Emphasis on Germanic, Jewish, Romance and Slavic Languages''
(2009) by David L. Gold, which includes commentary by Rob Rentenaar, professor of onomastics at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other bein ...

, goes into great detail about all the various translations for "Spuyten Duyvil" which have been mooted over the years. Rentenaar concludes that "Duyvil" means "devil", either literally or in a transferred sense, but he could not determine what the intended meaning of "Spuyten" was because of the many variants that have been used throughout history. The creek was referred to as ''Shorakapok'' by

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...

Native Americans in the area, translated as "the sitting down place" or the place between the ridges".

History

In the late 17th century, Frederick Philipse, the lord of Philipse Manor in Westchester County, received permission to construct a bridge across Spuyten Duyvil Creek and charge tolls. "King's Bridge", which was located roughly south of and parallel to where West 230th Street lies today, opened in 1693. Development of the neighborhood began in the latter half of the 19th century once the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad came through. The tracks originally crossed Spuyten Duyvil Creek and into Manhattan on the west side, but

Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...

wanted to consolidate his railroad operations into one terminal, so he had tracks laid along the north side of the Harlem River so that trains coming south from Albany could join with the Harlem and New Haven lines and come into Manhattan down Fourth Avenue into his new

Grand Central Depot Grand Central Terminal is a major commuter rail terminal in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, serving the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines. It is the most recent of three functionally similar buildings on the same s ...

. This is the route still used by Metro-North today. Through the 1920s development of the Spuyten Duyvil neighborhood continued. Large high-rise apartment buildings, which later became

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

s and

cooperatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

, began to be built in the 1950s and continued through the 1980s, bringing in affluent families attracted by its scenic qualities, as well as by the area's closeness to desirable neighborhoods such as Fieldston and Riverdale. Henry Hudson column jeh top

On July 18, 2013, a freight train derailed near the Spuyten Duyvil station due to an excessively wide gauge at one point. No one was killed or injured. Less than six months later, on December 1, a commuter train derailment near the Spuyten Duyvil station resulted in 4 deaths and over 70 injuries, 11 of them critical. The cause of the second derailment was determined to be excessive speed.

Demographics

Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Kingsbridge and Spuyten Duyvil was 30,161, a change of 289 (1%) from the 29,872 counted in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of .Table PL-P5 NTA: Total Population and Persons Per Acre - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010
Population Division -

Department of City Planning, February 2012. Accessed June 16, 2016. The racial makeup of the neighborhoods were 49.3% (14,872)

White White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...

, 8.9% (2,691)

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

, 0.1% (40) Native American, 5.7% (1,731) Asian, 0% (15)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Ocea ...

, 0.3% (98) from other races, and 1.7% (510) from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino of any race were 33.8% (10,204) of the population.Table PL-P3A NTA: Total Population by Mutually Exclusive Race and Hispanic Origin - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010
Population Division -

Department of City Planning, March 29, 2011. Accessed June 14, 2016. A restaurant guide once described the neighborhood as " upper middle class".

Police and crime

Spuyten Duyvil is patrolled by the 50th Precinct of the

NYPD The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

, located at 3450 Kingsbridge Avenue. The 50th Precinct ranked 13th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. The 50th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 79.9% between 1990 and 2020. The precinct reported 3 murders, 12 rapes, 88 robberies, 158 felony assaults, 150 burglaries, 461 grand larcenies, and 152 grand larcenies auto in 2020.

Library

The

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) ...

(NYPL) operates the Spuyten Duyvil branch at 650 West 235th Street. The one-story branch opened in 1971 and was designed by Giorgio Cavaglieri.

Transportation

Spuyten Duyvil is the location of the Spuyten Duyvil train station, which is served by the Hudson Line of the

Metro-North Railroad Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of the U.S. state of New York and under contract with the Connecticut ...

, providing service into

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern termi ...

and north into

Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...

. Spuyten Duyvil Bridge, a railroad swing bridge that carries

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

's Empire Corridor line between New York City and Albany, spans Spuyten Duyvil Creek. The north end of the Henry Hudson Bridge connects the neighborhood to the island of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

via the

Henry Hudson Parkway The Henry Hudson Parkway is a parkway in New York City. The southern terminus is in Manhattan at 72nd Street, where the parkway continues south as the West Side Highway. It is often erroneously referred to as the West Side Highway throughout it ...

Hudson Rail Link The Hudson Rail Link is a feeder bus system operated by Logan Bus Company for Metro-North Railroad Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authorit ...

connects the Metro-North station to the surrounding area, with Routes J, K, L, and M serving Spuyten Duyvil.

Points of interest

Edgehill Church of Spuyten Duyvil Edgehill Church at Spuyten Duyvil is a former United Church of Christ parish church located at 2570 Independence Avenue in the Spuyten Duyvil neighborhood of The Bronx, New York City. Its congregation was founded in 1869 as the mission chapel aff ...

(

United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximate ...

) was built in 1888-89 as a chapel of the Riverdale Presbyterian Church located nearby, and was designed by Francis H. Kimball in an eclectic mix of styles: Romanesque Revival,

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architectur ...

and Shingle style. The church was designated a

New York City landmark The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

in 1980. *

Henry Hudson Park Henry Hudson Park is a small park in the center of Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx in New York City, located at the intersection of Kappock Street and Independence Avenue. The park contains a small overlook above Spuyten Duyvil Creek, named Half Moon over ...

features a bronze statue of

Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States. In 1607 and ...

sculpted by Karl Bitter and Karl Gruppe on top of a

Doric column The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of ...

by architect Walter Cook of the firm of Babb, Cook & Willard. *Villa Charlotte Bronte is an apartment house built in 1926 and designed by Robert Gardner, which overlooks the Hudson and Harlem Rivers.

Notable people

Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and his ...

(1898–1976), sculptor who is best known for his innovative mobiles. *

William Sergeant Kendall William Sergeant Kendall (born 1869 in Spuyten Duyvil, New York, died 1938 in Hot Springs, Virginia), was an American painter, most famous for his evocative scenes of domestic life; his wife and three young daughters were frequent subjects in h ...

(1869–1938), artist. *

Georgina Klitgaard Georgina Klitgaard ( Berrian; July 3, 1889/1893 – January 12, 1976) was an American artist.Joan Tetzel (1921–1977), actress."THE ESQUIRE CANTEEN We Remember Joan Tetzel"
''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

'', March 1, 1945. Accessed November 24, 2020. "Born in New York City, Joan grew up in the Hudson River town of Spuyten Duyvil."

References

Notes Bibliography * * * * *

External links

* {{authority control Neighborhoods in the Bronx