Gun Hill Road (road)
Gun Hill Road is a major thoroughfare in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The road stretches for 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Mosholu Parkway in Norwood to Stillwell Avenue in Baychester, near an exit for the Hutchinson River Parkway. Van Cortlandt Park and the Mosholu Golf Course are both located at the western terminus of Gun Hill Road.
For other uses, see Gun Hill Road (disambiguation).Namesake
3.5 mi (5.6 km)[1]
Hutchinson River Parkway in Baychester
History[edit]
During the American Revolution, the road was an important artery over which the British and the colonists fought. In January 1777, the colonists brought a cannon to the top of a hill and fired at the British. The hill, now inside Woodlawn Cemetery, was locally called Gun Hill afterwards. The road was known as Kingsbridge Road (part of the original Boston Post Road) until 1875, when it was renamed Gun Hill Road. It did not originally extend east of White Plains Road but was extended by segments to the Hutchinson River, by 1938.[2]
In 1941, the New York City Planning Department proposed the Gun Hill Crosstown Highway as an upgrade, but nothing happened with this plan.[3] In the mid-1960s, the Tri-State Transportation Commission proposed a new route just a mile north of Gun Hill Road called the City Line Expressway; this plan also did not advance.[3]
Transportation[edit]
Commuter rail[edit]
The Williams Bridge station, a former New York Central Railroad station, now serves the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line. It is located near the intersection with Bronx River Parkway.[4]
