History
During the Revolution, the road was an important artery over which the British and the Colonists fought. In January 1777, the colonists brought a cannon to the top of a hill and fired at the British. The hill, now inside Woodlawn Cemetery was locally called Gun Hill afterwards. The road was known as Kingsbridge Road (part of the original Boston Post Road) until 1875, when it was renamed Gun Hill Road. It did not originally extend east of White Plains Road, but was extended by segments to the Hutchinson River by 1938.
In 1941, the New York City Planning Department proposed the Gun Hill Crosstown Highway as an upgrade, but nothing happened with this plan. In the mid-1960s, the Tri-State Transportation Commission proposed a new route just a mile north of Gun Hill Road called the City Line Expressway; this plan also did not advance.
Read more about this topic: Gun Hill Road (Bronx)
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