Two New York Sea Serpent Stories

 

I recently received a couple of Sea Serpent stories from a fellow cryptid enthusiast with whom I have been conversing for about a year now. He has a friend called "Laura from Pennsylvania" whom he has persuaded to write down her eyewitness account as well as draw the sketch shown above. There are actually two accounts, the other being a story she heard concerning some other people. But first, Laura's own story which I pass onto readers without any further analysis.

In the 1980s, my mom drove my sister and I to Stormville Airport Flea Market – in April and September. We took the Taconic Parkway North from the Bronx.  We traveled over a bridge, which is called the Amvets Memorial Bridge (it’s from 1931 and 40 feet wide and about 750 feet long) that crossed over the New Croton Reservoir.

We traveled early in the morning and the sun was just coming up when we left the house, so by the time we reached the bridge, it was daylight.  My sister sat in the front seat because she got carsick, and I was in the back seat. I was looking to my left of the bridge and my sister was looking to the right of the bridge – we were more than half-way across the bridge.

We both gasped and yelled “What is That?”  This monster was not that far from the shoreline and it was as clear as day.  It was traveling pretty fast too, you could see the flippers flapping away and it was very dark in color – a major contrast to the blue of the water. My mother continued driving, but we regret that we didn’t say stop the car – because I had a camera! What a missed opportunity for a once in a lifetime shot!

We talked about what we saw every time we went up there, hoping for another glimpse of what we saw… now, think of it – we never thought to ask – which direction were you looking?  Years later, when we were going back to Stormville, I glanced at my sister and she was looking to the right – I asked her if she was looking to the right that day we saw it and yes, she was looking the opposite way of me!  We never realized that we were both looking in different directions and just how big that monster was!

I saw the front end of this monster – a very long neck with “flippers” and she saw a long tail! We totally believe we saw a Plesiosaur – there is absolutely no doubt in our minds that we saw what we saw!  It still gives me the chills to think that this monster still lives! Here is a picture of the bridge – we were about ½ way across when we spotted it.

Location wise, the bridge is shown on the Google Maps screenshot below. I am not sure whether I should class this story as Sea Serpent, Lake Monster or River Monster. As stated, the bridge crosses over a body of water called the "New Croton Reservoir" which is itself part of a system of reservoirs supplying water to New York. The reservoir joins to the great Hudson River via the two mile stretch of the River Croton but a dam obstructs most of the way.

My correspondent vouches for Laura's trustworthiness and if anyone knows of similar stories from that region, then let me know. The second story goes back to the 1960s and goes as follows.

This story was relayed to me by my older sister who was about 7 at the time, recalled the boys telling this tale. The year was about 1968 in the Bronx, New York …. Local boys aged 10-15 years old, always exploring, walked to Bronxdale Avenue which was about 2 miles from their home. There is an entrance now to the Bronx Zoo, but back then there was no official entrance except for a broken chain link fence.

Boys being boys, went through the fence and traveled to about 180^th Street – which by foot is approximately 2.5 miles.  The Bronx River travels through this area and there is also a waterfall that was closed off to the public.  The entire area was a forest.

The boys went exploring through this area – where no visible human life ever traveled - except Native Americans!  It was very overgrown with ancient trees.   They were about ¼ mile from the waterfall and were at the water’s edge, it was very dark because of all the trees, except for a small beam of light shining through the trees, when all of a sudden a huge neck extended out of the water reaching at least 12 feet, very slimy looking, dark in color, had a snake like face and was looking directly at the boys.  They didn’t wait to see what it was going to do!

Thankfully, the boys ran home and told their tale to the other kids – these were not kids that exaggerated at all and were good “Catholic” boys.  This tale was told throughout the neighborhood for many years.  Somewhere someone has a drawing of what they saw, because my sister saw them drawing it! Here is a picture of the falls:

This admittedly third hand account is more urban in its context as shown in the second map below. This occurred on the Bronx River in the environs of Bronx Park which flows about three miles south into the Atlantic via the larger East River. One can only assume that whatever the creature was, it was a brief visitor to the river and was soon heading back to the ocean. It certainly was not an escapee from the Bronx Zoo! But again, comments are invited as to strange aquatic tales from the region of New York. My thanks again to Laura for these stories.

Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook group.

The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com