Bridewell (New York City jail)

The Bridewell was a municipal prison built in 1768 on the site now occupied by City Hall Park in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.

For other uses, see Bridewell (disambiguation).
"The Old Bridewell, which formerly stood in the Park, between the City Hall and Broadway"

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Bridewell is a common English noun referred both to a gaol in which prisoners were held, or a workhouse to which they were confined. The term was used for a number of jails in the Thirteen Colonies.

Construction on the New York City Bridewell began in 1768, although the building was not completed until after the end of the American Revolutionary War.[1] Even though it was incomplete, the British used the jail to house prisoners of war during the Revolutionary War.[2] It stood until it was replaced by The Tombs in 1838; some of the dressed stone blocks from the Bridewell were used to construct The Tombs.[3][4]

References
  1. Black, George Ashton (1897). The History of Municipal Ownership of Land on Manhattan Island. Columbia University Press. p. 31.
  2. Wright, Otis Olney, ed. (1917). History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917. Town of Swansea. p. 54. OCLC 1018149266. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  3. "Four Walls, City Hall Park". forgotten-ny.com. Forgotten New York. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  4. Carrott, Richard G The Egyptian revival: its sources, monuments, and meaning, 1808–1858 University of California Press, 1978 ISBN 0-520-03324-8 p.165


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