The Bronx is also known as the underrated borough of New York City. Accompany us to the North of the Big Apple and discover fascinating Art Déco art, exciting baseball games, and beautiful parks!
The first settlement in the Bronx by European colonists took place in the 17th century when modern-day New York City was a Dutch colony. A farmer named Bronck, who came from Sweden, settled here on farmland bought from local Indian tribes. The area was referred to as "Bronck's Land" or simply "Bronck's" after its first settler. During the colonial rule of the English, it evolved into the name Bronx.
Until the 19th century, the Bronx was a rural area with many small farms. Little by little, it grew closer to Manhattan and was incorporated into New York City in 1874, even before Brooklyn and Queens. From 1900 onwards, rapid urbanization began. Many New Yorkers discovered the Bronx as an ideal residential district in the Green Belt, and the borough experienced its economic peak.
After the Second World War, the Bronx developed into a social hotspot. Poverty and crime increased steadily, and the apartment buildings became more and more dilapidated. Many wealthy residents left the area, which became a working-class and poor neighborhood. The ethnic composition of the borough also changed dramatically: where previously inhabitants were mainly of European descent, more and more African-Americans and Hispanics arrived.
From the 1990s on, crime in the Bronx and all of New York dropped sharply. The birthplace of hip-hop developed into a bourgeois and multicultural district with many attractions. Nevertheless, even today there are certain corners that tourists should better avoid, e.g., Gunhill Road or White Plaines Road.
The Bronx is dominated by residential developments and apartment buildings. With a rate of only around 20 %, the Bronx has a comparatively low proportion of homeowners. But contrary to popular perception, the borough is also home to upscale neighborhoods with single-family homes in the green.
In the Pelham Bay neighborhood in the Northeast Bronx, you have New York's largest park in terms of area right on your doorstep. Tranquil brick buildings and single-family homes provide the district, which today is characterized by its cultural diversity, with the atmosphere of an American suburb. And since Pelham Pay is well-connected to public transportation, you'll be out of the small-town idyll and in the middle of the business hotspot of Manhattan in no time.
Riverdale, the greenest – and, according to many New Yorkers, the most beautiful – neighborhood of the Bronx, awaits you in the Northwestern part of the borough, right on the border with Westchester County. In Riverdale, you will find historic mansions and estates from the 19th century, but also small single-family homes and modern apartments overlooking the Hudson River. A number of parks, such as Seton Park, Wave Hill Gardens, and nearby Van Cortlandt Park, provide an abundance of opportunities to exercise, hike, or relax.
Fordham is home to the Bronx Zoo, the New York Botanical Garden, the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, and Fordham University. The culturally diverse and vibrant university neighborhood is a good place to start for New Yorkers on a small budget, as real estate prices here are still about 20 % below average Bronx prices and nearly 50 % below Manhattan rents. And thanks to a good connection to the subway system, commuting to other boroughs is not a problem.
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Concourse is a district full of contrasts. The historic neighborhood is the site of the boulevard Grand Concourse, modeled after Paris' chic Champs-Elysées, but it was also the birthplace of hip hop in the 1980s. Today, Concours is a lively residential district with a low crime rate and affordable housing prices. You can find plenty of recreational options here, including restaurants, farmers markets, yoga studios, the Bronx Museum, and the Yankee Stadium.
The Melrose district is the unofficial city center of the Bronx. It has so many shopping opportunities that New Yorkers refer to Melrose's commercial district as "the Hub." Thanks to the general construction boom in the South Bronx, Melrose is one of the neighborhoods where you can still snag affordable rent. In addition, its proximity to Manhattan and very good access to public transportation make it an ideal place to live for commuters.
The Bronx is also known as New York City's "underrated borough." Far from the usual tourist hotspots, you'll discover lesser-known but no less exciting attractions here.
Are you planning a trip to the Bronx borough? These three top sights should be on your itinerary:
The Bronx is the hotspot for baseball fans in New York City Since 2009, the MLB stars of the New York Yankees have been playing their home games in the new Yankee Stadium. The modern arena, which cost around 1.5 billion dollars, is one of the most expensive venues in the world.
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Located at Macombs Dam Park, it replaced the original Yankee Stadium, where Yankees legends like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig competed between 1923 and 2009. If you want to indulge in baseball nostalgia, you can visit the museum integrated in the current stadium called Monument Park, where you will find a large collection of monuments, plaques, and stories related to the famous New York sports team.
A trip to the Bronx Zoo is a little trip around the world in the middle of New York. Make sure you take plenty of time for your visit, as the zoo, which opened in 1899, is the largest zoological garden in the world, covering an area of 107 hectares. It is home to around 4300 animals belonging to over 750 species and also includes an aquarium, a climbing park, a 4D cinema, and changing exhibitions.
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Tip: You don't have to pay admission to the Bronx Zoo on Wednesdays. However, due to high demand, spots are limited, and you must reserve a "limited admission" in advance on the zoo's website.
A piece of France in New York: the 6 km long Grand Concourse, located a few blocks East of Yankee Stadium, was modeled after the Champs-Elysées boulevard in Paris.
Discover Grand Concourse on this tour through the Bronx
Fans of Art Déco, in particular, will find the Grand Concourse quite a sight to behold, as the street is the largest collection of that art form in the USA, along with Miami's famous Art Déco district. As you walk along the Grand Concourse, you'll catch sight of numerous statues, decorative elements, and buildings from the 1920s to the 1940s.
On the Grand Concourse, you'll also encounter a famous German. The Lorelei Fountain, with its Heinrich Heine Memorial, came to the Bronx at the end of the 19th century. Actually, the fountain was supposed to be installed in Düsseldorf, the writer's hometown, but due to fierce opposition to the monument in the former German Empire, it came to the United States on detours.
The Bronx has an exciting history behind it and is the home of hip-hop, breakdance, and graffiti art. Don’t miss out on these locations on your tour through the history and culture of the Bronx:
In the 1970s, a new music genre spread from New York's Bronx: hip-hop. To trace the origins of hip hop, you should go to the area around the Bronx River Houses near 174th Street and Harrod Avenue.
Alternatively, you can join a guided hip hop tour of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn, which will take you to popular landmarks like the Apollo Theater, historic rap battle venues, and famous music video spots.
There's a lot more green in the Bronx than you might think. In fact, about 25 % of the area consists of parks, making the Bronx the greenest borough in New York City.
The huge New York Botanical Garden is a wonderful place to enjoy a stroll and take a deep breath. Founded in 1891, the 100-hectare garden is one of the largest botanical gardens in the entire United States.
On your tour of the New York Botanical Garden, you'll encounter many attractions such as 300-year-old trees, a Japanese rock garden, an 1890s greenhouse, a herbarium, a library with some 50,000 volumes, and a poetry trail featuring works by poet Edna St. Vincent Millay.
The beautiful Van Cortlandt Park in the Northern Bronx is a paradise for sports fans. Here, you'll find miles of running and walking trails, golf courses, and facilities for baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, cricket, lacrosse, rugby, track and field, and equestrian sports.
After your athletic routine, you can take a break at Van Cortlandt Lake, the largest freshwater lake in the Bronx, or visit the Van Cortlandt House Museum, the oldest remaining building in the Bronx.
The gigantic Pelham Bay Park in the Northeastern part of the Bronx borough is an oasis of calm for stressed city dwellers. With an area three times the size of Central Park in Manhattan, it is New York's largest public park. The popular recreation area on the shore of Long Island Sound includes numerous nature trails, several peninsulas and islands, and a lagoon.
You can also spend your time here playing on several golf courses in Pelham Bay Park or relaxing on Orchard Beach. Culture lovers can head out for a tour of the historic Bartow-Pell Mansion and the Bronx Victory Column monument.
Shopping, nightlife, sporting events: there is always something going on in the Bronx. We've tracked down a few awesome locations.
Do you want to go bargain hunting in the Bronx? Then check out these stores and markets:
Ready to explore the nightlife in the Bronx? We have some recommendations for you:
If you want to watch first-class US sports live, the new Yankee Stadium is the place to go. Here, the baseball team of the same name, which is represented in the American Major League Baseball (MLB), has been playing its home games since 2009. However, Yankee Stadium is not only the place to watch baseball but also Major League Soccer games. In 2015, it also became the home of New York City FC.
Six New York Subway lines serve about 70 stations in the Bronx. You can also use the two Metro-North Railroad commuter lines (Harlem Line and Hudson Line) and the MTA Regional Bus Operations bus lines. Since 2018, the Soundview Line ferries have also been operating in the East River between the Soundview pier in the Bronx and Pier 11 at the Southern tip of Manhattan.
If you prefer to stay flexible and take a rental car in the USA, you can use different routes in the Bronx. New York City's Northernmost borough is connected to the rest of the city via thirteen bridges and three tunnels. Among the most famous are the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge, and the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge to Queens, as well as the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge, the Henry Hudson Bridge, and the Broadway Bridge to Manhattan.
You probably haven't heard these 10 interesting facts about the borough of the Bronx:
After your excursion through the Bronx, four more boroughs of New York City await you! Enjoy sightseeing in Manhattan, explore the art galleries of Brooklyn, watch world-class sporting events in Queens, and relax on the beaches of Staten Island!