Westchester County, New York

Westchester County is a suburban county with about 940,000 residents located in the U.S. state of New York. It was named after Chester, in England. The county seat is White Plains.

History

The first Europeans to explore Westchester were Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524 and Henry Hudson in 1609. The first white settlers were sponsored by the Dutch West India Company in the 1620s and 1630s. English settlers arrived from New England in the 1640s.

Westchester County was an original county of New York State, one of twelve created in 1683. At the time, it also included the present Bronx County, which constituted the Town of Westchester and portions of three other towns: Yonkers, Eastchester, and Pelham. In 1846, a new town, West Farms, was created by secession from Westchester; in turn, in 1855, the Town of Morrisania seceded from West Farms. In 1873, the Town of Kingsbridge seceded from Yonkers.

In 1874, the western portion of the present Bronx County, consisting of the then towns of Kingsbridge, West Farms, and Morrisania, was transferred to New York County, and in 1895 the remainder of the present Bronx County, consisting of the Town of Westchester and portions of the towns of Eastchester and Pelham, was transferred to New York County. By that time, the portion of the town of Eastchester immediately north of the transferred portion had seceded from the town of Eastchester (1892) to become the City of Mount Vernon so that the Town of Eastchester had no border with New York City. In 1914, those parts of the then New York County which had been annexed from Westchester County were constituted the new Bronx County.

Image

Although many of its residents are quite wealthy and it is home to many extremely affluent suburbs of New York City, Westchester has a more diverse population, both demographically and economically, than its stereotypical image suggests. Given this stereotype, some may find it ironic that Westchester County actually borders the Bronx; however, this is not so strange considering the Bronx's rather notorious reputation is not entirely accurate either. Adding to the contradictory image are the facts that Westchester is home to a maximum security federal prison (Sing Sing) and a nuclear power plant (Indian Point). Include the facts that Westchester is among the most densely populated counties in the US and has a higher crime rate than that of neighboring counties, and the stereotypical image becomes more ironic yet.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,295 km² (500 mi²). 1,121 km² (433 mi²) of it is land and 174 km² (67 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 13.45% water.

Westchester County is in the southeastern part of New York State. It is bordered to the south by the borough of The Bronx in New York City, to the west by the Hudson River (New Jersey is across the river from Yonkers; most of the rest of the county is across the Hudson from Rockland County), to the east by Connecticut and the Long Island Sound and to the north by Putnam County.

The highest elevation in the county is a U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey benchmark known as "Bailey" at 300 m (985 feet) above sea level in Mountain Lakes Park near the Connecticut state line. The lowest elevation is sea level, along both the Hudson and Long Island Sound.

In popular conception, Westchester County is generally divided into northern and southern areas by virtue of their distinguishing social and economic differences. The northern portion (places north of Interstate 287/Cross Westchester Expressway) is seen as rural and wealthy; the southern portion (White Plains and south) is considered urban and poor. These generalities, however, do not necessarily hold true in all communities. For example, Bronxville and Scarsdale in the southern portion are among the wealthiest communities in the entire U.S., and Peekskill in the northern portion is relatively urban and low-middle income. The Westchester County Department of planning divides the county into North, Central and South sub-regions.

At the closest point, Westchester is only 2 miles north of Manhattan (from Broadway & Caryl Avenue in southern Yonkers to Broadway & West 228th Street in the Marble Hill section.) However, most places in Westchester are much farther from most places in Manhattan than this unusual example may suggest.


This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Westchester County, New York".