The Harlem River Ship Canal is a channel connecting the Hudson River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek to the Harlem River in New York City, separating the neighborhood of Marble Hill from the island of Manhattan. Marble Hill, part of the borough of Manhattan, was cut off from the island by the construction of the ship canal and is now located on the mainland after the previous course of the river was filled in.
The Harlem River Ship Canal was cut through upper Manhattan to allow larger ships to navigate. It was completed in 1895. To allow passage through the remainder of the river, the existing fixed bridges were replaced by drawbridges.
Spuyten Duyvil Creek originally flowed north of Manhattan's Marble Hill, and the completion of the canal to the south turned Marble Hill into an island, until 1914, when the original creekbed was filled in and Marble Hill became physically attached to the Bronx.
Today Spuyten Duyvil Creek, the Harlem River Ship Canal, and the Harlem River form a continuous channel. The Ship Canal is crossed by the Broadway Bridge, a vertical lift bridge carrying vehicular and pedestrian traffic on one level, and the subway on the upper level.
Famous quotes containing the words harlem, river, ship and/or canal:
“Morality becomes hypocrisy if it means accepting mothers’ suffering or dying in connection with unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions and unwanted children.”
—Gro Harlem Brundtland (b. 1939)
“I cannot tell how many times we had to walk on account of falls or rapids. We were expecting all the while that the river would take a final leap and get to smooth water, but there was no improvement this forenoon.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is said that a carpenter building a summer hotel here ... declared that one very clear day he picked out a ship coming into Portland Harbor and could distinctly see that its cargo was West Indian rum. A county historian avers that it was probably an optical delusion, the result of looking so often through a glass in common use in those days.”
—For the State of New Hampshire, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“My impression about the Panama Canal is that the great revolution it is going to introduce in the trade of the world is in the trade between the east and the west coast of the United States.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)