TheWest Bronx is a region in theNew York City borough ofthe Bronx. The region lies west of theBronx River and roughly corresponds to the western half of the borough.
The West Bronx is more densely populated than theEast Bronx, and is closer toUpper Manhattan. From the late 17th century to the middle 19th century this included the central and southern part of the Town ofYonkers, but then became the separate Town of Kingsbridge. In 1874, the then towns ofKingsbridge,West Farms andMorrisania were transferred to New York County, becoming the first area outsideManhattan to be annexed by the City of New York. Today's West Bronx was then known as the "Annexed District". In 1895, the city annexed the modern-day East Bronx, followed in 1898 by western Queens County (today's borough ofQueens, with the remainder of what was eastern Queens County becoming the newly formedNassau County), all of theCity of Brooklyn (today's borough of Brooklyn), and all of Richmond County (today's borough ofStaten Island) to form the consolidated city of New York.[1][2]
Physically, the western parts of the Bronx are hilly, underlain byFordham gneiss and dominated by a series of parallel ridges running south to north. The West Bronx has older tenement buildings, low-income public housing complexes, multifamily homes in its lower-income areas as well as larger single family homes in more affluent areas such asRiverdale. It includes New York City's third largest park:[3]Van Cortlandt Park which runs along the Westchester-Bronx border. TheGrand Concourse, a wide ridgeline boulevard runs through the area from north to south. Because the West Bronx uses the same street numbering system asManhattan, large portions of streets designated as "east" (e.g., East 161st Street) may actually be locatedwest of the Bronx River. This is because the east-west divider isFifth Avenue in Manhattan andJerome Avenue in the Bronx, which is directly north of Fifth Avenue. Jerome Avenue was approximately the centerline of the original Annexed District, though not of the expanded modern Bronx.[2][4]
Prior to the 1970s, New Yorkers generally saw the Bronx as being split into its eastern and western halves. However, with theurban decay that hit the southwestern Bronx starting in the 1960s, people began to see the borough as being fundamentally divided between the southwestern area ("TheSouth Bronx") and everywhere else.[5]
West Bronx neighborhoods include:
From the Town of Kingsbridge (originally the southern part of the Town ofYonkers).
From the Town of Morrisania (Encompasses areas now considered to be theSouth Bronx):
From the Town of West Farms:
The West Bronx is the home ofYankee Stadium.
40°51′00″N73°54′00″W / 40.850°N 73.900°W /40.850; -73.900
| South Bronx |  | |
|---|---|---|
| West Bronx | ||
| East Bronx | ||
| Related areas |
| |
| By topic | |
|---|---|
| Boroughs |
|
| Government | |
| Emergency services | |
| Transportation | |
| Culture | |
| Education | |
| History | |
