Pelham Bay Park, located in the northeast corner of Bronx, is the largest public park in New York City, more than three times the size of Manhattan’s Central Park. It includes land on both sides of the Hutchinson River and all of Hunter Island in Long Island Sound (now also part of the mainland).
On its north is the village of Pelham Manor in Westchester County. The park borders the Bronx neighborhoods of Spencer Estates, Pelham Bay, and Co-op City. The southern part of Rodman’s Neck is not part of the park but is occupied by the NYPD Rodman’s Neck Firing Range. The City Island Bridge connects the park to City Island. A very old plantation-style mansion called Bartow-Pell Mansion is a colonial remnant done in greek revival style. The lagoon nearby was once part of Pelham Bay and was called Le Roy’s Bay in colonial times. The lagoon was widened and dredged to make way for the planned New York City Olympics in 1960’s, but it may be useful in the 2012 NYC Olympics. At the northeast section of the park is Orchard Beach and a parking lot that were created by Robert Moses as the Riviera of Long Island Sound.
One third of Pelham Bay, from which the park got its name, was filled in with landfill to make Orchard Beach. The park is crossed by the New England Thruway, the Hutchinson River Parkway, and Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor railroad.
