The Spuyten Duyvil Branch of The New York Public Library is located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, one block west of the Henry Hudson Parkway. Designed by architect Giorgio Cavaglieri, the building opened to the public in August 1971. The one-story structure features an electric door switch, an indoor book drop, and all parts of the library, with the exception of the restrooms, are wheelchair accessible. The branch’s name comes from the Dutch Spuit den Duyvil, loosely translated as the “Devil’s Spate,” which was the name 17th-century Dutch settlers gave to a now extinct waterway separating the northern tip of Manhattan from the Bronx mainland.
