The settled areas of New Netherland and New Sweden. Source: Wikipedia
Nyack, Dec 23 — Looking back, it was 350 years ago this week when the natives of Nyack lost jurisdiction over part of Brooklyn. Looking ahead, blogger Cap’n Transit offers 100 Years of the Tappan Zee Bridge — a food-for-thought view of where today’s transportation decisions might be taking us.
In the here and now, it’s Day 2 of Your Opinion Please: Issues for Nyack, Rockland and Beyond, an end-of-year survey capturing public opinion about issues in the news over the past few months. It’s your chance to weigh in on the Tappan Zee Bridge project, the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, fire sirens and labor unions.
Back in the day — waay before people used the expression “back in the day” — the places we now call Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, Mapleton and Bay Ridge in Brooklyn were granted a town charter as part of the Dutch colony, New Netherland. Land purchased by surveyor and Dutch West India investor Cornelius van Werckhoven from the Nyack and Canarsee native American tribes became part of the town of New Utrecht.
One hundred years of history about a bridge that is only 56 years old requires some facts to start and some fiction to complete. Cap’n Transit’s TZB timeline begins in 1953 when the first concrete caisson is floated into place. It ends in 2054 when the Village of Nyack is moved to a parking pedestal in Nanuet to make room for the Nyack Biomass Plant and a future condo development (it will be called Residences at Nyacke replacing it’s original working title, Clermont Section 4. ;>)
Sources:
- On This Day in History: New Utrecht Gets Its Charter, BrooklynEagle.net 12/22/2011
- 100 Years of the Tappan Zee Bridge: A Look Back, Cap’n Transit 12/23/2011
- New Utrecht, Brooklyn, Wikipedia
