Island, and the channel was then so shallow that cattle passed to and fro across the latter.
An
extract from John B. Jervis' " General Description of Line of the
Croton Aqueduct," describing the topography of the Harlem River at High
Bridge and the character of the river bottom, is not without interest.
" The width of the river at the place where the aqueduct line crosses
it is 620 feet at -dinary high-water mark. As has been before stated,
the more on the southern (Manhattan) side is a bold rock rising from
the water's edge at an angle of about 30° to a height of 220 feet. On
the northern (Bronx) side a strip of tableland forms the shore and
extends back from the river 400 feet to the foot of a rocky hill, which
rises at an angle of about 200 to a few feet above the level
of the aqueduct. The tableland is elevated about 30 feet above the
river; the channel of the river to which the water is reduced at very
low ebb tides is 300 feet wide, and the greatest depth 16 feet. Each
side of the channel the bed is a deep mud, covered from 3 to 4 feet at
ordinary flood tide. Next below the mud there is a thii stratum of
sand, and this is followed by a stratum of sa d and large boulders or
detached rock; there has been found in the coffer dams for two piers,
Nos. 8 and 9, a compact marble rock (Inwood Dolomite), and in the
coffers of Nos. 7 and 10 a stratum of clay and sand that is quite
impervious to water and affords a good medium for piling."
Pearl
Street has its circuitous and curved course because originally the
street was the nearest to the river, and its direction was determined
by the shore. It was a very thriving street, the business of that
section of the city being the most unflagging and important because of
the active traffic in farm products with Long Island. The edge of the
East River was lower and less bold and " declivitous " than the shores
of the Hudson, and the rear of the gardens of the buildings on it in
those early days was washed by the river's tide. It was built up to
Broad Street, which then was occupied by a creek. Pearl
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