🏘️ Croton Local History
Blog posts, articles, and community histories by local historians
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crotonhistory.org
views The David Rumsey Map Collection Bridges NYC Carl Oechsner and Marc Cheshire Click on any image to enlarge it! Detail from an 1868 map of Sing Sing with the Aqueduct Arch marked in red. Note the location of the Arcade File Works, to the east of
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the arch, and School No. 1, to the west. From the Atlas of New York and Vicinity by F.W. Beers, courtesy David Rumsey Map Collection. davidrumsey.com Rare non-commercial stereoview, inscribed by hand on the back “View on the Kill at Sing Sing.”
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Construction drawing, probably by Chief Engineer John B. Jervis, circa 1837 Cutaway views showing interior construction, circa 1837. See previous image, which shows where these sections were located. Painting by Frederick Agate, circa 1839, of
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Whitson’s Mill, located to the east of the aqueduct arch. Shortly after this was painted a wooden bridge was erected under the arch to cross the Kill. The original painting is in the collection of the Ossining Historical Society. Lithograph showing
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the wooden bridge built under the aqueduct arch sometime after 1839. From F.B. Tower, Illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct , New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1843. Detail of the wooden bridge that originally carried local traffic under the arch. F.B.
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Tower, Illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct , New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1843. View looking east, showing the smaller arch over what is today Aqueduct Street on the far left. F.B. Tower, Illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct , New York: Wiley and
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Putnam, 1843. Detail from F.B. Tower, Illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct , New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1843. Stereoview by H. Rofes & Co., circa 1865, showing the Arcade File Works (erroneously called “Arcade Tile Works” on the paper label on the
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back). The company began operation in 1848 in the old mill and a new building next door. The mill power was used by the factory, which stayed in business until the early 1900s. The firm took the name Arcade from the aqueduct arch spanning the valley.
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This detail from the previous image likely shows students from “School No. 1” which was west of the Arcade File Works on the other side of the Double Arch. Stereoview by E. & H. T. Anthony & Co., circa 1865. Courtesy of the New York Public Library,
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Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views Later view from the Kill, showing the Arcade File Works mill dam and water wheel. Detail from a stereoview looking southwest down the Kill, over the Arcade File Works mill dam. Looking south across
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the promenade. The steeple in the background is the First Presbyterian Church. The church blew down in windstorm around 1900 and was never replaced. The Art Nouveau frame and “Private Mailing Card” label on the back of this post card helps date this
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image to 1898 to 1901. During the heyday of postcards in the early 20th century the Double Arch was an often-photographed New York landmark—as this example and the selection that follows attest. Postcard by the Hugh C. Leighton Co., circa 1901-1907
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Postcard by the Rotograph Co., circa 1901-1907 Postcard by Valentine & Sons’ Publishing Co., circa 1908. Courtesy of http://www.bridgesnyc.com/postcards A highly retouched night view, created using the photograph of the previous card. Aerial photo of
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Ossining, showing the Double Arch in the lower right corner An early 20th century view of the promenade, looking north. The view may not look the same, but today New Yorkers will once again be able to stroll across this 19th century engineering
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marvel. Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share on
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Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Like Loading... Related Tagged Arcade File Works Double Arch Sing Sing Kill Published July 20, 2013 July 20, 2013
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From Souvenir of the Hudson River , published by Wittmann Brothers, circa 1880. Anyone who takes Metro-North’s Hudson River Line is struck by the beauty of the river, particularly in the evening when the sun is setting over the Palisades. Although
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it’s difficult to imagine, this trip has made an impression on travelers for more than 160 years. Here’s one account of the passage up the river, through “Sing Sing” and Croton in 1873, excerpted from En Rapport on the Rails ( Related on the Rails )
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by Vieux Moustache (Old Moustache) the pseudonym of Clarence Gordon—an author who at the time lived in Newburgh, New York. This story was published in the Troy Daily Whig , on April 26, 1873. 1 The next time you’re taking the train back to Croton,
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imagine what the river would have been like at that time. It’s been “stifling hot in the city” and we’ve just crossed the Spuyten Duyvel. Our companion in the seat next to us has “aroused himself from his open-eye nap,” and given his “attention to
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the book in hand,” but soon he turns “from that to the scenery.” Our “offer to him of the seat by the window led to some desultory remarks, and those passed into a conversation which, before we passed the opposite Palisades, had grown as warm and
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earnest as the talk of old friends. . . .” “What a delightful ride that is up the Hudson River railroad by a six or six-thirty train, of a summer's afternoon! . . . Before Sing Sing and seven o'clock the hot sun sank down behind the Nyack hills. Then
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we were able to push up the blinds and enjoy the full breeze and view. The Hudson River Railroad, going north from Sing Sing in 1868 from F.W. Beers’ Atlas of New York and vicinity . In a moment we plunge from light, breeze and freedom into the damp
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obscurity of a short tunnel, then rush with clanging reverberations past the high, shadowed, white walls pierced with hundreds of narrow, grated window slits. You put your face close to the car side, and peer up with sad curiosity to the prison
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sides; perhaps catch a flash-like picture in one of those iron-barred frames of a face—merely a bare face seen but for an instant—but perhaps you fancy it a hard, desperate countenance, marked by misery and revenge. But few seconds for your gloom. It
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travels not beyond the massive, dreary walls and the last sentry-box. A harsh, prolonged whistle of the engine, and we are by the pleasant open shore again. Some faint pink lines over the Rockland hills, the river cheerfully rippled, a few sails,
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away ahead a steamboat just passing Croton Point. With increasing speed we flash by Sing Sing, screaming as though our monster locomotive craved some victim to wet its rails. Now Brandreth's pretty little pill box and factory close under our right; 2
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a marshy shore and outstretched nets on the left. We cross the drawbridge 3 of the Croton—the beautiful river flowing out of a but partially revealed valley, and spreading into a bay that looks the picture spot for punts 4 and flocks of ducks. The
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Hudson River Railroad, crossing the mouth of the Croton River and Croton Point in 1868, from F.W. Beers’ Atlas of New York and vicinity . Just there, near the south shore of Croton Point, and about a quarter of a mile from the rails, was a sloop
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swinging on a new tack . . . In the softening light, a little in the shadow of the land, gently touched by a reflection of the western sky, and caught but for a glance as she turned to a new course, and we ran between the gravel banks 5 that open
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