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40°36′48″N74°02′53″W / 40.61333°N 74.04806°W /40.61333; -74.04806
| The Narrows | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
 ATERRA satellite image ofNew York Harbor with The Narrows (in red), connectingUpper New York Bay toLower New York Bay | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New York |
| Municipality | New York City |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Upper New York Bay |
| Mouth | Lower New York Bay |
The Narrows is thetidal strait separating theboroughs ofStaten Island andBrooklyn inNew York City. It connects theUpper New York Bay andLower New York Bay (of largerNew York Bay) and forms the principal channel by which theHudson River flowing south from upstateNew York and theNew England regions, empties into theAtlantic Ocean. It has long been considered to be the maritime gateway to New York City and theNortheastern United States on theEast Coast ofNorth America, and historically has been one of the most important entrances into theseaportharbors of thePort of New York and New Jersey.
The Narrows was most likely formed afterdeposition of theHarbor Hill Moraine about 18,000 years prior to the end of the last prehistoricice age. Previously,Staten Island andLong Island / (Brooklyn) were connected and theHudson River emptied into theAtlantic Ocean through theRaritan River, taking then a more westerly course through parts of present-daynorthern New Jersey, along the eastern side of theWatchung Mountains ridge to the area aroundBound Brook, New Jersey, and then on into the Atlantic via theRaritan Bay. A build-up of water in theUpper New York Bay allowed the river to eventually break through to form current The Narrows less than 12,000 to 13,000 years ago as it exists today.[1]
The first recorded European entrance into The Narrows off theEast Coast ofNorth America, was in 1524 by theItalianFlorentine explorerGiovanni da Verrazzano (1485–1528), who was in the employ of and sailing for theKingdom of France and its monarch, KingFrancis I, who set anchor off-shore in the strait and was greeted by a group ofLenape natives, who paddled out to meet him onboard his new strange huge sailing vessel in the strait.
Two and a half centuries later, in July and August 1776, theBritish naval and land forces under commandingGeneralWilliam Howe (1729–1814), in their campaign to takeNew York City and destroy thecolonial American patriots' year-oldrebellion, had already landed on nearby undefendedStaten Island the previous month of early July 1776, undertook an amphibious operation moving northeast across The Narrows andNew York Bay and landed south of and near the village ofBrooklyn on theSouth Shore at the western end ofLong Island. There they soon routed GeneralGeorge Washington's dug-in defendingContinental Army by a long sweeping end-run flank attack at the famousBattle of Long Island (a.k.a. theBattle of Brooklyn) of August 27, 1776, before they made their escape, evacuating at night by barge / rowboats across theEast River back toManhattan, during the decisiveNew York and New Jersey campaign of theAmerican Revolutionary War (1775–1783).
TheStaten Island Tunnel, carrying theNew York City Subway system line under and across The Narrows, was partially built during the 1920s but was never completed.[2] The subsequent prominent landmark of asuspension spanVerrazzano–Narrows Bridge was completed across The Narrows four decades later in November 1964.[3] Designated then as thelongest suspension bridge in the world at the time, it is still the longestsuspension bridge existing in theUnited States (by length of the main span).[4]
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_under_the_Verrazano_Narrows_Bridge.jpg)
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Media related toThe Narrows at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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