Northern tip of Manhattan Island, a neighborhood know as Inwood. The large river on the left (west) is the Hudson. The one that curves around to the north and east is the Harlem River, which is technically a tidal strait. The purple marker indicates where I grew up. Googlemaps did not exist when I was a kid, so my perspective was very different from that shown here. I did spent a lot of time near the water, but that involved what seemed like a long walk to me then - with obstacles including road, train tracks, and isolated areas.