User:Amy nepal/Sawkill

Saw-kill (the Dutch place-name for Saw Mill Creek) the largest hydrological network on Manhattan Island prior to the founding of the Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1624. This 13,710-meter long stream began in the northern reaches of today’s Central Park, approximately where the Lake is now located, and ended at the foot of East 74th street where it emptied into the East River between two rocky points. Along its route down from the high ridges of Manhattan’s interior, the stream separated into two branches, with the name ‘Saw-kill’ reserved for the southern arm of the creek. The name for the smaller, northern stream is undocumented, but is recorded by the Randel Map (1870) as entering the East River at 79th street. .

Early years: 1624-1639
Undoubtedly, the stream received its name from the saw mill that existed for some time "in the bed of 74th street, about 250 ft east of Avenue A.” The workers of the saw mill are thought to have been primarily the slaves of the West India Company whose lodgings were stationed at the mouth of the Saw-kill until at least 1639 (as it is referenced as "the quarter of the blacks, the [The West India] company's slaves" by the first landmark map of Manhattan Island, the Manatus Map of 1639). It is thought that the slaves would use the stream to float the logs hewn by the mill to the East River, from which they would be transported to the newly established fort at New Amsterdam, at the Southern tip of Manhattan Island, or to the Netherlands. Two roads were built to access the Saw-kill in the 17th century, attesting the value of the mill in Dutch Manhattan, one extending north from New Amsterdam along the path built by the Wuckquaasgeeks (a band of the Lenape), that is today known as Broadway, and the second reaching southward from the town of New Haarlem.

Arch Brook
Although historians, such as Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, regarded the Saw-kill as,"the well known Saw-kill, which played an important part in the early days of Manhattan" by 1677, when the land was transferred from the Dutch West India Company to Abraham Shotwell, the stream was known commonly as “ye run of water, formerly called ye saw mill creeke”. Eventually the saw mill was replaced by a leather mill and the Saw-kill was dammed and arched over in the early-mid 19th century, creating a much smaller stream called Arch Brook. It seems that the bridge traversing the Saw-kill, however, remained a popular "Kissing Bridge"(first noted as such in 1806) throughout the 19th century.

Central Park: The Lake and Ladies Pond
While even Arch Brook has long since disappeared, the waters of the Saw-kill are still present in Central Park. Park planners used the remnants of the Saw-kill’s source waters to create the 18-acre Lake situated in the middle of the Park between 71st and 78th street. The remaining portion of the Saw-kill was also utilized to connect the two bays of Ladies Pond, a small ice skating pond north of the Lake that was reserved for women’s private use. Thus, until 1930, when Ladies Pond was filled in to serve as a pedestrian path, the Saw-kill remained an active watercourse.