Bronx, the

Northernmost borough of New York City, USA, northeast of the Harlem River; area 109 sq km/42 sq mi; population (2000 est) 1,332,700. The Bronx is bounded on the north by Westchester County, on the east by Long Island Sound, on the south by the East River, and on the west by the Harlem and Hudson rivers; it is largely a residential area. The New York Zoological Society and Gardens (popularly called the Bronx Zoo) and the Bronx Botanical Gardens are here. Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees baseball team, is also located here.

The Dutch West India Company first acquired the area in 1639, and it is named after an early Dutch settler, James Bronck; it was incorporated as a borough in 1898. The Bronx is the seat of several colleges including Fordham University (1841), Manhattan College (1853), State University of New York Maritime College (1874), College of Mount Saint Vincent (1911), and Herbert H. Lehman College (1968) of the City University of New York.

The Bronx is the birthplace of the writers Paddy Chayevsky and Herman Wouk and was the residence of Edgar Allen Poe. Its Woodlawn Cemetery contains the graves of many famous people from jazz musician Duke Ellington to entrepreneur F W Woolworth.