Echo Bay (Long Island Sound)

Last updated
Echo Bay
NRHA 1.png
Echo Bay and Harbor Management Area
USA New York location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Echo Bay
Location New Rochelle, New York
Coordinates 40°53′45″N73°46′36″W / 40.8957°N 73.7768°W / 40.8957; -73.7768 Coordinates: 40°53′45″N73°46′36″W / 40.8957°N 73.7768°W / 40.8957; -73.7768
Islands Echo Island; Clifford; Harrison; Tank; Big Hassock; Little Hassock
References [1]

Echo Bay is an embayment located off Long Island Sound in the city of New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York. [1] It is an anchorage for small craft and is generally fully occupied during the summer. The depths at the anchorage range from 4 to 15 feet, and launches can anchor in the shallow cove on the northeast side of the harbor, entering between Harrison Islands and the rocky, grassy islet off the northwest side of Echo Island. [2] Vessels frequently anchor between the entrance of Echo Bay and Hicks Ledge, in depths of 20 to 24 feet. On the northwest side of Echo Bay a dredged channel 100 feet wide and 15 feet deep, marked by buoys, leads to the New Rochelle Municipal Marina at Beaufort Point (Hudson Park). [3]

Contents

Coastal geography

Premium Point is on the northeast side of the entrance of Echo Bay. "Spindle Rock", lying 100 yards southwestward of Premium Point, is covered at high water, and is marked at its southwest end by a red buoy. "Table rock", bare at half tide, is on a reef which extends from the shore at a point 3/8 of a mile eastward of Premium Point. "Hicks Ledge", a small patch of rock with 8 feet over it, lies nearly 1/2 of a mile southwestward of Premium Point. The passage between "Spindle Rock" and Premium Point is practically blocked by rocks which are hidden even at low tide. "Baileys rock" is near the end of a reef which extends about 200 yards off the point of Davenport Neck on the southwest side at the entrance of Echo Bay. The rock is marked on its eastern side by a gas buoy. [2]

Islands within the bay include Harrison, Echo, Clifford, Tank and Big and Little Hassock islands.

Southwest of Echo Bay there is a stone pier which protects a private boat landing on its southwest side. Pine Island is privately owned and covered with brush. Two bare rocks lie 200 yards southwestward of Pine Island. Southwestward of the rocks there is a long, bare ledge, the southwest end of which is marked by a spindle with a cage. Between the spindle and two other spindles southward of it, there is a channel used by small craft navigating between Echo Bay and New Rochelle Harbor. [4]

History

Echo Bay New Rochelle NY 1914.jpg

In 1690, Jean Machet acquired the property that is now the New Rochelle Municipal Marina, from Jacob Leisler to develop his shipbuilding and trading business with the West Indies. He continued to own this land, as well as Echo Bay Island, until 1694 when he sold it to Joshua Ferris, a Tory, who renamed it Ferris Creek. [5]

Joshua Ferris ran a tavern on his property which became popular with Shubel Merritt and his gang of ruthless outlaws, the "Skinners". At the end of the Revolutionary War, Shubel Merritt was shot and killed in the Black Walnut Tavern at the corner of Old Town Dock and Pelham Roads. Enoch Crosby, General Washington's most celebrated spy was said to have started his career at the Ferris Tavern. In 1827, David Harrison purchased the land and built a dock in an attempt to revive it as a local landing site. [6] Snuff Mill Creek, located next to Sutton Manor, was built in the early 18th century by Jacob Leisler Jr. and operated as a grist mill along with a mill at Crystal Lake. It was later owned by David Lispenard and used as a snuff mill. Over succeeding years it passed through the hands of a number of Quakers, including one who was supposedly active in the movement to liberate slaves. The mill was said to have been used as a stop for the underground railroad. This area eventually became the home of the New Rochelle Coal and Lumber Company.

In 1945, the City acquired it for use as the Municipal Marina. It underwent a series of major improvements including the construction of a boat house and bulkheads, and the grading and paving of the dock area. The dredging of Ferris Creek and the construction of new piers and slips to accommodate small boats made the City into a boating center. In the 1960s, a $2.3 million investment by the City transformed the marina into a major boating facility. The 5.3 acre Municipal Marina, one of the largest on Long Island Sound, contains 100 moorings and 500 berths, 55 of which can accommodate vessels longer than 30 feet.

Related Research Articles

Casco Bay inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of Maine, New England, United States

Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of Maine, New England, United States. Its easternmost approach is Cape Small and its westernmost approach is Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth. The city of Portland sits along its southern edge and the Port of Portland lies within.

Sucia Island Island of the San Juan Islands in Washington state, United States

Sucia Island is located 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north of Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands, San Juan County, Washington, United States. It is the largest of an archipelago of ten islands including Sucia Island, Little Sucia, Ewing, Justice, Herndon, the Cluster Islands islets, and several smaller, unnamed islands. The group of islands is about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) in length and just short of a half mile wide. Sucia island is roughly the shape of a hand. The total land area of all islands is 2.74 km². The main island of Sucia Island by itself is 2.259 km². There was a permanent population of four persons as of the 2000 census, all on Sucia Island. Sucia Island State Park is a Washington State Marine Park.

Grand Traverse Bay bay on Lake Michigan in Grand Traverse County, Michigan, United States

Grand Traverse Bay is a bay of Lake Michigan formed by the Leelanau Peninsula in the northwestern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The bay is 32 miles (51 km) long, 10 mi (16 km) wide, and up to 620 feet (190 m) deep in spots. It is divided into two arms by the Old Mission Peninsula. The entire bay is conterminous with the Grand Traverse Bay Bottomland Preserve. It should not be confused with Grand Traverse Bay of Lake Superior, located on the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Braye Harbour is the main harbour on the north side of the Island of Alderney, in the Channel Islands, a dependency of the British Crown. A 3,000 feet (910 m) break-water was built by the Admiralty to protect the Navy in the 19th century shelters Braye Harbour. It is an artificial harbour created by building a pier or jetty. The harbour faces out onto the Swinge, which is part of the English Channel. It is here that most of the island's freight comes in. It is more or less a suburb of St Anne, which is a large settlement in Alderney that juts out on a rocky promontory on the west side, approximately 1 mile from the harbour.

Sassafras River river in the United States of America

The Sassafras River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay on the Delmarva Peninsula in the United States. It is approximately 22 miles (35 km) long and starts in western New Castle County, Delaware, and along the boundary between Cecil County, Maryland on the north and Kent County, Maryland on the south. It rises southwest of Middletown, Delaware and ends at the Chesapeake Bay in a wide mouth between Howell Point near Betterton, Maryland and Grove Point on Grove Neck.

Discovery Island Marine Provincial Park provincial park

Discovery Island Marine Provincial Park is a provincial park located about two nautical miles east of Oak Bay on the coast of British Columbia. It is about a mile long and one-half mile wide and looks out into the Juan de Fuca Strait.

Norwalk Harbor is a recreational and commercial harbor and seaport at the estuary of the Norwalk River where it flows into Long Island Sound in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States.

All View Estate

All View is a historic, 28 room estate home located on the Long Island Sound shore in the gated, Premium Point community of New Rochelle, in Westchester County, New York. Although real estate advertisements have listed the architect as Stanford White, the actual designer was Sidney Vanuxem Stratton, who maintained an office in the same building as McKim, Mead & White. It sits on 2.82 acres at the end of the Premium Point peninsula overlooking New Rochelle's upper most harbor, Echo Bay.

Moira Sound is a branching inlet on the east side of the southern end of Prince of Wales Island in U.S. state of Alaska. It is situated within the Tongass National Forest.

Horseshoe Harbor is a bay located on the north shore of Long Island Sound, in the village of Larchmont in Westchester County, New York. This small cove lies just westward of Larchmont Harbor and is used as a launch anchorage for small recreational boats. The deeper water in the entrance favors the eastern side, and the northwest side of the cove is bare at low tide. A rock, bare at low water and marked by a private spindle with can, lies 60 yards off the south side of the point on the west side at the entrance.

New Rochelle Harbor (Long Island Sound)

New Rochelle Harbor is the name of a harbor located along Long Island Sound in the city of New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York. The Davenport Neck peninsula off the mainland divides New Rochelle's waterfront into two bays; the westerly referred to as New Rochelle Harbor and the easterly as Echo Bay.

Davenport Neck

Davenport Neck is a peninsula in New Rochelle, New York, extending southwesterly from the mainland into Long Island Sound, and running parallel to the main shore. It divides the city's waterfront into two, with New Rochelle Harbor to the south and southwest, and Echo Bay, to the north and northeast. Glen Island and Neptune Island lie just to the west of the Neck, and Davids' and Huckleberry islands lie to the south.

Premium Point, New Rochelle neighborhood in Westchester, New York, United States

Premium Point is a guard-gated private community in the city of New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York, United States. The area consists of a series small islands connected by bridges to a peninsular fronting on Long Island Sound and backing on Premium Mill Pond and Echo Bay. Much of the shore line of Premium Point is high and rocky, both on the Sound and on the Bay. Premium Mill Pond is located between the Premium Point peninsula and the mainland. It is fed by the Premium River and is separated from Echo Bay by the former Premium Mill dam.

Premium Mill-Pond

Premium Mill-Pond is located in the communities of New Rochelle and Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York. The mill-pond is situated northeast of Echo Bay, between the Premium Point peninsula and the mainland. It is fed by the Premium River and is separated from Echo Bay by a dam that creates a waterfall into the harbor.

Ikatan Bay

Ikatan Bay is a waterway in the U.S. state of Alaska. The bay and Isanotski Strait separate Unimak Island from the Alaska Peninsula. They have been used by light-draft craft, intended for service on the Yukon River, in making the passage from Puget Sound ports to St. Michael.

Unalaska Bay

Unalaska Bay is a waterway of Unalaska Island in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is situated below the eastern slopes of Makushin Volcano. Composed of seven individual bays, Unalaska Bay opens onto the Bering Sea.

Crystal Lake was a former lake in the village of New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York. It originally supplied early colonial mills with water power. It was fed by Stephenson Brook, which rises just north of Paine Lake and drains the large watershed adjacent to North Avenue from beyond Quaker Ridge Road.

Pelham Road, known as Shore Road within the Bronx, is a historic 4.1-mile (6.6 km) east-west arterial road that runs along the Long Island Sound shoreline from Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx through the southern Westchester County, New York communities of New Rochelle and Pelham Manor. The thoroughfare had its beginning as an Native American trail linking the important villages on Davenport Neck to those on Pelham Neck in Pelham. Between these points along the shore line there was an almost continuous chain of small Indian villages and camps. This waterfront area was especially advantageous, with many small coves in secure harbors and protected by adjacent islands and many small streams of water and abundant springs.

New Rochelle Yacht Club

The New Rochelle Yacht Club (NRYC), formerly situated on Harrison Island with its anchorage in Echo Bay, was one of the foremost yacht clubs on Long Island Sound during the late nineteenth early twentieth century. The club was organized in 1885 and for several years had its headquarters on Harrison Island. Later it moved to the mainland occupying a larger site in Hudson Park on Echo Bay, and in 1901 was moved back again to Harrison Island, occupying the entire island.

References

  1. 1 2 "Echo Bay". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey.
  2. 1 2 U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (1918) United States Coast Pilot U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, D.C., p.142
  3. Constitution, by-laws, racing rules, etc. of the New Rochelle Yacht Club; club houses: Harrison Island, shore station: Hudson Park, anchorage: Echo Bay, New Rochelle, N.Y.;Author=New Rochelle Yacht Club;Publisher=The Knickerbocker Press, 1911;Page=70
  4. New Rochelle and Echo Bay Harbors, New York : review of reports;Author=United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. New York District; Published=1973
  5. 'New Rochelle: The City of the Huguenots', The New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce, 1926, page. 8
  6. 'New Rochelle Waterfront: A Legacy', Leonard C. paduano; The Knickerbocker Press, 1988, pages. 10-11

As of this edit, this article uses content from "Echo Bay (New Rochelle, New York)" , which is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, but not under the GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed.