East River is a tidal channel that links Upper New York Bay to the Long Island Sound . Despite its name, the East River is not actually a river. The 16-mile (26-kilometer) saltwater channel—also called a tidal strait—separates Manhattan Island from Long Island. The East River has long been one of New York City’s most important waterways.
Tides cause the water level at any waterway connected to an ocean, as the East River is, to rise and fall in cycles. On average, the East River has two high tides and two low tides per day. The average difference between high and low tide varies at different locations within the channel. It is about 4.4 feet (1.3 meters) near the south end of the channel and about 7.2 feet (2.2 meters) near the northern end.
The southern end of the East River starts at the north end of Upper New York Bay. The tidal channel begins near the Battery, the southernmost point of Manhattan Island, and continues to the northeast, flowing under the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges. It passes the Brooklyn Navy Yard and such neighborhoods as Williamsburg in Brooklyn , the East Village in Manhattan , and Long Island City, in Queens . The United Nations Headquarters, completed in 1952, stands along the channel in the eastern part of Midtown Manhattan. Roosevelt Island, which extends about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) within the channel, contains many historic structures. South of Wards and Randalls islands, the Harlem River—another tidal strait—joins the East River. The East River then passes through Hell Gate , a narrow channel separating Wards and Randalls islands from Queens. There, the waterways are spanned by the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge . The East River continues east, past Rikers Island and Flushing Bay. It then flows beneath the Bronx-Whitestone and Throgs Neck bridges—both of which connect the boroughs of Bronx and Queens—into Long Island Sound.
The East River has been a major transportation route since the Lenape and other indigenous (native) groups first inhabited the New York region hundreds of years ago. In August 1776, during the American Revolution, Massachusetts fishermen ferried 9,500 patriot troops across the waterway, saving General George Washington’s army from destruction. In 1876 and 1885, the United States Army Corps of Engineers detonated huge amounts of explosives to clear treacherous rocks from the channel at Hell Gate. In 1904, the steamboat General Slocum caught fire while on the East River, leading to the deaths of 1,021 people. By the early 1900’s, decades of runoff from sewage systems had created conditions that killed much of the waterway’s wildlife. Cleanup efforts in the late 1900’s and early 2000’s helped make the waterway safe for some recreational activities.
