Valentine's manual of old New York

(New York :  Valentine's Manual Inc.,  1920.)

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OF OLD NEW YORK
The Boston Road and Aaron Burr

By Stephen Wray

The Boston Road, northern entrance for land travel
from all New England to New York City, roughly par¬
allelled the shores of Long Island Sound, circling the
heads of the inlets, until it reached the village of East-
chester; there it bent westward and, climbing over the
tops of the ridges and dropping into the valleys, crossed
to Manhattan Island at Kingsbridge; this was the road
of early colonial times.

Shortly after the Revolution ended, a new section of
the Boston Road was proposed, designed to tap the old
road at Eastchester and connect with a new bridge across
the Harlem River (at the present 129th-133rd Streets)
a road at once direct, of easy grades, providing a short¬
cut into New York on its easterly side, one that would
save much time and eliminate many of the troubles of
the tired traveler on his approach to the City. This new
section of the Boston Road owes its location and pro¬
motion largely to the efforts of Doctor Joseph Browne,
once of West Farms, and behind the activities of this
Doctor Browne it is not difficult to discern the directing
mind of his brother-in-law, the astute and wily Aaron
Burr.

In July, 1777, the youthful Burr, for meritorious serv¬
ice, received from Washington the appointment of Lieu¬
tenant-Colonel placed in charge of a regiment stationed
in the valley of the Ramapo River. This regiment had
been so placed in order to prevent a British flank-attack
on West Point by Redcoats from New York crossing
Northern New Jersey and ascending the Ramapo ft>r
access to the Hudson Valley at Newburgh.    The soldiers

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