United States Ship Canal
Coordinates: 40°52′30″N 73°55′5″W / 40.87500°N 73.91806°W
Spuyten Duyvil Creek /ˈspaɪtən ˈdaɪvəl/ is a short tidal estuary connecting the Hudson River to the Harlem River Ship Canal and then on to the Harlem River in New York City. The confluence of the three water bodies separate the island of Manhattan from the Bronx and the rest of the mainland. Once a distinct, turbulent waterway between the Hudson and Harlem rivers, the creek has been subsumed by the modern ship canal.
The Bronx neighborhood of Spuyten Duyvil lies to the north of the creek, and, as a result of the construction of the ship canal and the creek's subsequent in-filling, so does Manhattan's Marble Hill neighborhood.
The earliest use of the name "Spuyten Duyvil" was in 1653, in a document from Dutch landowner Adriaen van der Donck to the Dutch West India Company. It may be literally translated as "Spouting Devil" or Spuitende Duivel in Dutch; a reference to the strong and wild tidal currents found at that location. It may also be translated as "Spewing Devil" or "Spinning Devil", or more loosely as "Devil's Whirlpool" or "Devil's Spate." Spui is a Dutch word involving outlets for water. Historian Reginald Pelham Bolton, however, argues that the phrase means "sprouting meadow", referring to a fresh-water spring. A folk etymology, "to spite the Devil" or "in spite of the devil", was popularized by a story in Washington Irving's A Knickerbocker's History of New York published in 1809. Set in the 17th Century, the story tells of trumpeter Anthony Van Corlaer summoned by Dutch colonial governor Peter Stuyvesant to warn settlers of a British invasion attempt, with Corlaer attempting to swim across the creek in treacherous conditions.
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