History & Culture · New York City
City Island Keeps the Bronx Close to the Sound
City Island adds saltwater scale to The Bronx: a small island, a bridge, wetlands, seafood memory, shipbuilding traces, and Long Island Sound light.
Published June 24, 2026 · Last verified June 24, 2026
City Island puts a little salt on the Bronx map. The 230-acre island sits between Long Island Sound and Eastchester Bay, connected to the rest of the borough by a bridge. In 1761, Benjamin Palmer bought the island. Investors later called it New City Island, and shipbuilding and oyster businesses helped shape the community that followed.
The bridge marks a clear change in the landscape. Cross it and the streets narrow, the sky opens, and marinas, wetlands, and seafood signs become part of the borough picture.
Pelham Bay Park, the wetlands, Eastchester Bay, and Long Island Sound all sit close together here. City Island is a small harbor community inside a very large borough, with its old shipbuilding and oyster history still tied to the water around it.
That contrast is what makes the island memorable. City Island does not stop being part of the Bronx when the bridge meets the shore. It widens the picture, adding salt air and boat memory to a borough more often pictured through trains, apartment blocks, hills, and big roads.