Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx

Spuyten Duyvil is the name of a subsection of the Riverdale section of the Bronx in New York City. The area is named after Spuyten Duyvil Creek, a Dutch name with various historical spellings and meanings, the most plausible of which is "Spinning Devil", "Devil's Whirlpool", or "Devil's Spate". The name Spuyten Duyvil currently refers to the southernmost section of Riverdale, below West 232nd Street (or below 239th Street by some definitions - though this definition is considerably less accurate.)

This neighborhood is home to The Henry Hudson Memorial Park and the Henry Hudson Bridge, which connects it to the island of Manhattan. It is also the location of the Spuyten Duyvil train station, which is served by the Hudson Line of the Metro-North Railroad.

Spuyten Duyvil is sometimes considered to be separate from Riverdale. While this may have some basis from a purely historical point of view, few would consider Spuyten Duyvil to be a wholly separate neighborhood from Riverdale.

Folklore
The tale of how Spuyten Duyvil got its name includes folklore. It is said that Peter Stuyvesant, then Governor of New Amsterdam, got wind that the British Navy was going to invade the city. He dispatched Anthony Van Corlaer, to ride up to the northernmost point of Manhattan Island and blow his trumpet, a common means of summoning the people. As he neared the shores where the Hudson meets the Harlem River, Anthony couldn't cross. It was a stormy evening when Van Corlaer arrived at the upper end of the island, and as no ferryman was available Van Corlaer vowed to swim across the river "in spite of the devil" (Dutch: "in spuyt den duyvil"),   Halfway across, legend has it that the devil pulled Anthony under, and, while he was able to escape his grasp, he was too tired to continue swimming and drowned there despite his escape. From then on, the little area in the Bronx where Anthony would have come to shore is called Spuyten Duyvil.