Rodman's Neck
Rodman's Neck refers to a peninsula of land in the Bronx, New York that juts out into Long Island Sound.
The southern third of the "neck" is used as a firing range by the New York Police Department; the remaining wooded section is part of Pelham Bay Park. The north side is joined to what used to be Hunters Island and Twin Island to form Orchard Beach and a parking lot.[citation needed]
Two small land berms between Rodman's Neck and City Island are City Island's only connecting point road to the mainland.[citation needed]
Turtle Cove controversy
Rodman's Neck now has three meadows. One is a natural salt water meadow, and the other two are manmade freshwater meadows, one of which was created by Robert Moses.
There are also a roundabout called The City Island Traffic Circle and several small ballfields. Every original building has been razed.
A landfill area for City Island Road crosses Turtle Cove Saltwater Marsh with a culvert made of concrete pipes connecting it to salt water Eastchester Bay. A second land berm built for horsecars, that was long forgotten, had its always-clogged three foot diameter culvert removed, and a trench with a stainless steel bridge was installed. Local birdwatchers say that allowing saltwater flow into northern Turtle Cove is chasing away freshwater drinking birds. Also, locals are bewildered that the parks department would waste money to build a pedestrian bridge, instead of removing the unused land berm.
Many residents dislike the parks department's plans to restore all flora and animals to indigenous species that are pre-Columbus.
History
Rodman's Neck is named after a local man, Samuel Rodman. It was originally named Anne's Hoeck after Anne Hutchinson, who was killed in a Native American massacre at nearby Split Rock. The southern tip, known as Pell's Point, is where the British landed during the Revolutionary War Battle of Pell's Point.
Controversy
Many City Island residents have been complaining for years about the noise from gunfire and the detonation of weapons at NYPD's Rodman's Neck Firing Range; they tend to shake City Island and the houses on it. This issue has been addressed many times, most notably at a town hall meeting hosted by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani at Public School 175 in March 1998, where city officials determined there was no solution to the noise problem, as there was no other practical venue at which to locate the NYPD range.
External links
Coordinates: 40°51′09″N 73°48′02″W / 40.85250°N 73.80056°W