Farmer John Williams' colonial tollbridge on the Bronx River gave this neighborhood its name. Farms dominated the landscape for two centuries. Williamsbridge farmers were raided for supplies by British and Colonial irregulars during the Revolutionary War. Fifty years later, they were sending their produce to Manhattan via the new Harlem railroad line. (Metro North has kept its Williamsbridge stop.) Some farms were still here in the 1920s, when the White Plains Road IRT subway began to bring commuters looking for apartments and small houses. Today Gun Hill Road cuts across a heavily residential area, home to much of the Bronx's Carribean population.


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