Everything about The Narrows totally explained
The Narrows is the tidal
strait separating the boroughs of
Staten Island and
Brooklyn in New York City. It connects the
upper and
lower sections of
New York Bay and forms the principal channel by which the
Hudson River empties into the
Atlantic Ocean. It has long been considered to be the maritime "gateway" to
New York City and historically has been the most important entrance into the
harbor.
The Narrows were most likely formed about 6,000 years ago at the end of the last
ice age. Previously Staten Island and Brooklyn were connected and the Hudson River emptied into the ocean through the present course of the
Raritan River, by taking a more westerly course through parts of present day northern New Jersey, along the eastern side of the
Watchung Mountains to Bound Brook, New Jersey and then on into the Atlantic Ocean via Raritan Bay. A build up of water in the Upper Bay allowed the river to break through to form the Narrows as it exists today (Waldman, 2000).
The first recorded
European entrance into the Narrows was in
1524 by
Giovanni da Verrazzano, who set anchor in the strait and was greeted by a group of
Lenape, who paddled out to meet him in the strait.
In August
1776, the British forces under
William Howe on Staten Island undertook an amphibious operation across the Narrows and landed in Brooklyn, where they routed
Washington's Army at the
Battle of Long Island.
In
1964, the Narrows were spanned by the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time, still the longest suspension bridge in the U.S.A. Because the hyphen in the name is often omitted, the strait itself is sometimes erroneously called the "Verrazano Narrows."
Further Information
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