“Heavy on the Hutch” is an oft-heard broadcast from New York traffic helicopters, along with “backups on the Throgs.” Few impatient motorists are aware that these terms can be traced directly back to the earliest years of Rhode Island’s settlement. Trade and land speculation between Rhode Island and the English and Dutch settlements of New York and Long Island was vigorous and families moved around frequently. The most notable Rhode Island surname that appears in the region is in the Hutchinson River and subsequent Hutchinson River Parkway, named after Antinomian leader Anne Marbury Hutchinson (1591-1643), of Portsmouth, who was killed near Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. The Throgs Neck Bridge was named after the peninsula in Long Island Sound originally owned by John Throckmorton (1601-1687), associate of Roger Williams and a founder of Providence. Across the Sound is Sands Point, once the residence of James Sands (1622-1695), an original proprietor and settler of Block Island. The establishment of Quaker Meetings at Flushing and Oyster Bay lured more Rhode Islanders to the region, including such familiar names as Cornell, Willet, Mott, Rodman, Randall, Ward and Townsend.
The Throg's Neck Bridge looking east, Long Island is in the background (Image courtesy Library of Congress)