Mayor Weller, finding it impossible to deal otherwise with the problem than summarily, and believing the dams to be a public nuisance which should be abated by arbitrary methods in the absence of other It was a courageous act, remedy, caused them to be torn down. similar to the one of the citizens of Westchester in Macomb's In the legal processes that resulted the mayor and city governiiiciii were fulh sustained ^ ~ by the courts. In 1895 (June 1) the sec£ -^A ond and (up to the present _ j time) last annexation of Westchester County terriI tory to New York City was made. This important an ^SBm "i *v nexation was accomplished mainly at the instance of citizens of the Town of ^ ^ Westchester, who felt thai the time had arrived when chauncey m. depew. to be their section ought brought within the city that limits and enjoy a measure of attention corresponding to o-iven to the districts west of the Bronx River. In addition to the (inwhole of Westchester Town, parts of Eastchester and Pelham of act on annexati the in cluding City Island) were embraced " all that territorv (to quote the words of the act) comprised within ter, Eastchester, and Pelham the limits of the* Towns of Westches which has not been annexed to the City and County of New York of a at the time of the passage of this act. which lies southerly

open forcingin 1838. Dam

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

straight line drawn from the point where the northerly line of the City of New York meets the center line of the Bronx River, to the middle of the channel between Hunter's and Glen Islands, in LongIsland Sound, and all that territory lying within the incorporated limits of the Village of Wakefield, which lies northerly of said line, with the inhabitants and estates therein." The additional territory thus severed from the County of Westchester and given to the City of New York comprehended about 14,500 acres, in which were some forty-five villages, islands, and other definitely named localities.