Marble Hill is Manhattan’s northernmost neighborhood—so far north, in fact, that it’s no longer physically connected to the rest of the borough. Though politically tied to Manhattan, Marble Hill is geographically part of the Bronx. But it wasn’t always so. Until the late 19th century, Marble Hill sat at the northern tip of Manhattan Island, separated from the mainland by the swirling waters of Spuyten Duyvil Creek. A modest 88-foot span, known as the King’s Bridge, linked it to the mainland in what is today considered the Bronx—a crossing the New York Times once called “the first impulse of the early city toward expansion.” In the late 1800s, efforts to create a more navigable connection between the Hudson and Harlem Rivers led to the construction of the Harlem River Ship Canal. The project effectively severed Marble Hill from the rest of Manhattan. Then, in 1913, the remainder of Spuyten Duyvil Creek was filled in, permanently fusing the former chunk of Manhattan to the Bronx. This geographic sleight of hand has sparked more than a century of confusion, marked by hostile incursions, attempted takeovers, and lingering debates over Marble Hill’s true identity. https://theneighborhoods.substack.com/p/marble-hill-manhattan