Talk:Macombs Dam Bridge

Named after Robert Macomb
This source indicates that the bridge was named after Robert Macomb, who was son of the General Alexander_Macomb_(1782_-_1841), but that article only lists a son William H. Macomb..
 * The Macomb Mansion derives its name from General Alexander Macomb, who bought it in 1797, and in 1810 it came into the hands of the general's son, Robert, who erected about 1813 the well-known Macomb's dam across the Harlem River, some miles below the Macomb Mansion, in order to secure water power for his mill.

The article on the General notes that neither the General or his father Alexander_Macomb_(American_merchant) were referred to by Jr. or Sr., so perhaps Robert Macomb was the General's brother.

As no Robert Macomb article exists, and I am unsure which person is Robert's famous father, I will not put this in yet. --Lent (talk) 21:49, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Some more research finds a longer book on the history of the area from a member of the New York Historical Society and seems to make clear that Robert Macomb is the son of the Macomb the merchant : So, therefore I infer Robert's brother is Macomb the General, and that the short section of HISTORIC BUILDINGS was confused about which Alexander Macomb was the General. This probably makes sense as the book was an advertising giveaway and primarily a history through pictures. Weighing the two sources, Edsall's has more exact dates and is about the specific area, whereas HISTORIC BUILDINGS seems a collection of short captions about building pictures from throughout the New York City. So I think Edsall gets it right :-)
 * was purchased, 1797-99, from Von Pfister and Joseph Eden by Alexander Macomb, a wealthy merchant of New York ( Who purchased from the State in 1791 more than three million five hundred thousand acres in Northern New York ...)
 * ... and the mill were sold in foreclosure, and purchased by his son Robert.

--Lent (talk) 15:35, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

Citizen Action returns river to Navigation
Both this source and the NYC DOT web site seem to agree that in 1838 or 1839 a group of citizens took the law into their own hands and breached Macomb's dam.


 * The idea of constructing a bridge in its present location was initiated by Robert Macomb in 1810. The Legislature awarded Mr. Macomb the right to erect a dam; one-half of the toll for crossing the bridge was to be donated to the poor, and boats were to pass freely through a lock. The bridge was constructed in 1814. The new dam, however, proceeded to flood meadows upstream and obstruct boat navigation. In 1839 a group of citizens breached the dam with a coal-carrying vessel; this act was deemed legal by the courts, who maintained that "it was a public nuisance to obstruct the navigation."

The final removal apparently took an act of the New York State Legislature,  

and eventually, we see evidence of sailing past Macomb's Dam on the excursion steamer Josesphine Wooster's ad: 

This is probably worth including in the article. --Lent (talk) 21:49, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Third oldest?
The article states that this is the third oldest bridge in NYC. This is incorrect, because I can think off-hand of three others that are older: High Bridge (1848), Brooklyn Bridge (1883), Washington Bridge (1888), and Carroll Street Bridge (1889). Woops, that's four. Additionally, the University Heights Bridge, while only at its current location since 1908, was originally opened in January 1895, four months before the Macombs Dam Bridge, at its original site on Broadway.

(There's also a bunch of bridges in Central Park dating back to the 1860s, and one in Prospect Park from 1890; I'm not sure you can count them, not being on streets. Depending on whether you want to count overpasses as well, the 5th Avenue overpass over a road in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn dates to c. 1850, and there's a bunch in the Bronx from 1889. See uglybridges.com for a list sorted by date.) Shalom S. (talk) 23:49, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

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