In Spite of the Devil: Spuyten Duyvil and the Lost World of Marble Hill

In the Dutch of the area's eventual settlers, that portion of the Harlem River became known as Spuyten Duyvil, variously translated as "the devil's spout" or "in spite of the devil"?the former on account of the gushing fresh waters that poured into the creek from a fountain near the shore, the latter after a local legend, popularized by Washington Irving. According to the tale, during a British attack on the Dutch colony, Dutch straw boss Peter Stuyvesant sent a callow youth named Anthony Van Corlear northward with a bugle with which he was to rally the men on the mainland. Van Corlear reached the glistening place and, as untold numbers of Indians had, paused at the sight of the Harlem's fast-moving waters. He jumped in and started swimming anyway, but didn't get far before the devil reached up from the foam and grabbed his leg. He let out a piercing cry and managed to get off a long bugle blast, audible as far away as Yonkers, before the devil dragged him down to the depths. Van Corlear's courage was lauded?it was said he swam the waters and blew his horn "in spite of the devil."

By the mid 19th-century, the glistening place had become known as Marble Hill, for the nearby quarries that mined the hard stone. Late in the century, as ship traffic grew, something was going to have to be done about Spuyten Duyvil. The waters could be treacherous; the Harlem River was too narrow to allow barges to safely pass. In 1895, the U.S. Ship Canal was blasted through Marble Hill. The neighborhood was now an island, sealed off by the original river on the north and, on the south, by the deep, straight, wide new passageway that enabled Manhattan to be easily circled by any boat. In 1914 the old creek was filled in along 230th St., which meant Marble Hill was now attached to the Bronx. A lonely piece of Manhattan had floated away and joined with its poor northward country cousin.

Marble Hill's residents wanted to keep their Manhattan addresses, so even though it was actually connected to mainland America, it was deemed a Manhattan neighborhood. It remains so today, vexing cab drivers who, when tested on various New York neighborhoods, answer that the neighborhood's part of the Bronx. After all, the hacks reason, they have to cross the river on the Broadway Bridge to get to it. That bridge is the only one that both carries cars and trains over water and connects Manhattan with Manhattan.

Today the circle-shaped neighborhood of 52 acres and 10,000 souls is a neighborhood with a unique identity. Marble Hill has a 718 area code, but residents serve their jury duty in Manhattan. They're serviced by Bronx police, fire and ambulance crews, but still vote for Manhattan Borough President.

I recently walked around Marble Hill, which is as hilly a place as its name suggests, and enjoyed looking at the solid old apartment buildings and gabled wooden houses. It's a place where time has slowed down. I saw a unisex hair salon with an advertisement up letting you know they do Afros and DAs. Down Adrian Ave. someone watched me from behind the curtain in a house with a cupola. Marble Hill notices strangers.

I stopped and talked with a few residents and heard about the Columbia rock. The area's located atop a huge cliff that looms above the Harlem River and that's painted with a gigantic powder-blue "C," spurring on Columbia's football team, which plays across the river at Baker Field, and rowers, who scoot out into the river to race other Ivy Leaguers. For decades, Marble Hill kids have climbed the Columbia rock and jumped into the waters below. The biggest kick was when some brave fool would ascend, wait for the Circle Line to turn, wave to the tourists and make them gasp as he stepped off into 100 feet of thin air.

Later I met an Austrian native, Eileen Calhoun, who has spent 45 years living in Marble Hill.

"I love it here. It reminds me of Greenwich Village. It used to be all Irish here, and now it's quite a mix of people, with Hispanics being the predominant group. We have a nice shopping area on 231st St. and everyone gets along. We try and fight the city to get services, but sometimes it feels as if we are just forgotten. Riverdale always seems to get what Marble Hill needs."

Affluent Riverdale, to Marble Hill's north, been fighting for years to keep Marble Hill children out of its schools. It's been an ugly class war, and it's been going on since the 60s.

Calhoun added, "One thing we have that Riverdale doesn't is convenience. We have the 1 and the 9 trains and a Metro-North stop. It is all a half hour into the city."

I walked down to 225th St. and stopped by a cement embankment above the Marble Hill Metro-North station. Below was the swift river; to the south, at Manhattan's northern wooded tip, bucolic Inwood Park. I was able to keep the din of the Broadway Bridge out of my consciousness, and I thought, yes, this is a glistening place.