A River Still Runs Through It

A photographer finds inner peace among the hawks and honking along the recovering Bronx River.

Photos by Nicholas Pollack

I first noticed the river because it did not seem to be noticed by anyone else.

It’s an orphan of sorts, the mercurial Bronx River, wandering through the ages of New York’s growth and perpetually neglected by history, despite being the only freshwater river in New York City. Left for the taking, the river was once a source of fish for native tribes; exploited by early traders for its beavers; used by European settlers as energy to fuel various types of mills, and is now a renewed waterway nestled between a rail system (Metro-North) and a roadway (the Bronx River Parkway).