The Bronx

About The Bronx

The Bronx ( BRONKS) is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The Bronx has a land area of 42 square miles (109 km2) and a population of 1,472,654 at the 2020 census. It has the fourth largest area, fourth largest population, and third highest population density of the boroughs. The Bronx is the only borough located primarily on the mainland, bordering Westchester County to its north; the Hudson River and the borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River, to its west; the borough of Queens, across the East River, to its south; and Long Island Sound to its east. The borough is coextensive with Bronx County, one of the 62 counties of New York State.

The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the west and a flatter eastern section. East and west street names are divided by Jerome Avenue. The west was annexed to New York City in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895. Bronx County was separated from New York County (modern-day Manhattan) in 1914. About a quarter of the Bronx's area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Bronx Zoo in the borough's north and center. The Thain Family Forest at the New York Botanical Garden is thousands of years old and is New York City's largest remaining tract of the original forest that once covered the city. These open spaces are primarily on land reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed north and east from Manhattan. The Bronx is also home to Yankee Stadium of Major League Baseball.

The word Bronx originated with Jonas Bronck, who established the first European settlement in the area as part of the New Netherland colony in 1639. European settlers displaced the native Lenape after 1643. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Bronx received many immigrant and migrant groups as it was transformed into an urban community, first from European countries (especially Ireland, Germany, Italy, and Eastern Europe) and later from the Caribbean region (particularly Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Haiti, Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados, and the Dominican Republic) and West Africa (mainly Ghana and Nigeria). African American migrants from the Southern United States as well as Panamanians, Hondurans, and South Asians also established themselves in the borough in large numbers.

The Bronx contains what had been the poorest of all 435 U.S. congressional districts, New York's 15th, until redistricting following the 2020 census. The borough also features upper- and middle-income neighborhoods, such as Riverdale, Fieldston, Spuyten Duyvil, Schuylerville, Pelham Bay, Pelham Gardens, Morris Park, and Country Club. Parts of the Bronx saw a steep decline in population, livable housing, and quality of life starting from the mid-to-late 1960s and lasting well into the 1980s, including a wave of arson in the late 1970s. The South Bronx, in particular, experienced severe urban decay. The borough began experiencing new population growth starting in the late 1990s and continuing to the present day.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.