Indigenous inhabitants of this area included members of the
Algonquian and
Lene Lenape (aka
Delaware) tribes. Bridgeville was the site of the first
covered bridge in
New York State, built in 1807 to facilitate construction of the Newburgh-Cochecton
Turnpike, a major frontier thoroughfare connecting communities on the
Delaware and Hudson rivers. From
Newburgh, the
turnpike took the route of the modern
State Route 17K to
Bloomingburg in the
Town of Mamakating, from there following the present
State Route 17 (future I-86), and thence for the entire length of
State Route 17B from
Monticello west to
Cochecton, on the upper
Delaware. The ambitious project of building this road opened new territory for European conquest and development, spread commerce and greatly enhanced the
tanning industry, which subsequently provided much of the
leather used in boots for
Union soldiers during the
American Civil War. The old bridge was demolished in 1923, replaced by the present-day
span (Sullivan County Bridge #285) over the Neversink River. According to a
marker that was placed on the original
bridge, the
architect was Maj. Salmon Wheat, a farmer who lived near the present village of Howells; and
directors of the company were Jacob Powell, president; George Manell,
treasurer; William H. Veller, secretary; Jonathan Hedges, a Newburgh physician; Charles Clinton; Levi Dodge; Daniel Stringham;
Jonathan Fisk, a Newburgh
attorney; Cyprian Webster, Jr.; Reuben Neely, member of
New York State Assembly; Daniel C. Verplank of
Fishkill; Hamilton Morrison, later a
Commissioner of
Common Schools for the Town of
New Windsor; and David Crawford, a
Hudson River boat captain whose former residence now houses the
Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands. In July 1994, a civil judgment was entered against the Town of Thompson in
New York State Supreme Court, in the
Matter of the application of Edwin Olmstead for a Judgment under Article 78 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules mandating proper care of the old
Hoyt Cemetery in Bridgeville. In 2004, in anticipation of the settlement of long-standing legal claims to Indian reservation lands, the
Stockbridge-Munsee Community filed a
land trust application for approximately in Bridgeville, and the
Cayuga Indian Nation of New York announced a venture with the owner of
Monticello Raceway,
Empire Resorts, to build a $500 million
casino adjacent to the Monticello Raceway. However, as a result of the
United States Supreme Court's subsequent decision in
City of Sherrill, NY v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York, 125 S. Ct. 1478 (March 29, 2005), Governor
George Pataki withdrew pending legislation and land claim settlements with the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of
Oklahoma, the Cayuga Nation of New York, the
Oneida Nation of
Wisconsin, and the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. The withdrawal did not include a separate proposal by the
St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, whose land claim was not affected by the Sherrill case. In light of these developments, the only casino development that, as of August 2005, seemed imminent in Sullivan or
Ulster Counties was the one planned by the
St. Regis Mohawks. ==Hydrology==