Bridgehampton, New York
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| Bridgehampton, New York | |
| Hamptons Classic | |
| U.S. Census map | |
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U.S. Census map
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| Coordinates: | |
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| Country | United States |
| State | New York |
| County | Suffolk |
| Area | |
| - Total | 11.2 sq mi (28.9 km²) |
| - Land | 9.3 sq mi (24.2 km²) |
| - Water | 1.8 sq mi (4.8 km²) |
| Elevation | 43 ft (13 m) |
| Population (2000) | |
| - Total | 1,381 |
| - Density | 147.8/sq mi (57.1/km²) |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| - Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP code | 11932 |
| Area code(s) | 631 |
| FIPS code | 36-08136 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0944725 |
Bridgehampton is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 1,381 at the 2000 census.
Bridgehampton is in the Town of Southampton.
Shortly after the founding of Southampton in 1640, settlers began to move east to the area known by the Shinnecock Indians as Sagaponack and Mecox. At the head of Sagg Pond the hardy Pilgrims established a settlement called Bullhead, later renamed Bridgehampton -- after the bridge built across the pond. Sagg Bridge was built in 1686 by Ezekiel Sandford. The Bridge was the link between Mecox and Sagaponack and gave this locality its name of Bridgehampton.
The boys basketball team at Bridgehampton High School has been the NY state small school champion numerous times in the '70's, '80's and '90's. Carl Yastrzemski, a Hall of Fame Baseball player for the Boston Red Sox, is a Bridgehampton native. He held the scoring record for basketball for 30 years and was a great outside shooter.
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[edit] Geography
Bridgehampton is located at (40.933182, -72.307987)GR1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 11.2 square miles (29.0 km²), of which, 9.3 square miles (24.2 km²) of it is land and 1.8 square miles (4.7 km²) of it (16.37%) is water.
[edit] Demographics
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 1,381 people, 627 households, and 369 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 147.8 per square mile (57.1/km²). There were 1,494 housing units at an average density of 159.9/sq mi (61.8/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 78.86% White, 17.38% African American, 0.51% Native American, 0.80% Asian, 1.45% from other races, and 1.01% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.26% of the population.
There were 627 households out of which 19.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.0% were married couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.1% were non-families. 33.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.20 and the average family size was 2.82.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 17.7% under the age of 18, 4.1% from 18 to 24, 22.2% from 25 to 44, 33.2% from 45 to 64, and 22.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 49 years. For every 100 females there were 95.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.0 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $54,896, and the median income for a family was $74,583. Males had a median income of $50,865 versus $32,778 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $43,781. About 6.8% of families and 8.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.2% of those under age 18 and 2.7% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] Race Circuit
Bridgehampton Race Circuit was a 2.85 mile, 13 turn road course located near Sag Harbor, on Long Island in New York State. The historic track has now largely been converted to a golf course. There is still an effort underway to try and restore the track, but success seems unlikely.[1]
"All who have raced there know that the earth is flat and ends in the sand at turn two. The emotional rewards of driving this turn 'flat out' are just as intense as the physical consequences of blowing it". - Bruce MacInnes, Chief Instructor, Skip Barber Racing School
BRIDGEHAMPTON: ONE GREAT RIDE
The early years: daredevils on country roads
New York's internationally-celebrated sports car racing circuit, once described by England's World Champion Sir Stirling Moss as "the most challenging course in the States", was the product of 95 years of sports car racing on New York’s Long Island.
Bridgehampton first saw action in 1915, when the annual Firemen's Fair brought a pack of very slow and smoky race cars to Montauk Highway. Decades later, a hero pilot returning from World War II with an MG TC, Bruce Stevenson of Sagaponack helped give birth to modern sports car racing all across America when he revived the Bridgehampton road racing tradition in 1949. The post-war Bridgehampton Sports Car Races on the narrow country lanes abutting the Atlantic Ocean attracted an array of New York celebrities, the metropolitan press corps, the best America's race drivers equipped with the newest European sports cars, and hordes of spectators. During the next five years, the race entry lists grew from 58 cars to more than 180 and the spectator count increased from 10,000 to 40,000. The excitement and international flair of these competitions fit perfectly into the sophisticated playground image that was blossoming in "The Hamptons".
“CAR HITS 3 SPECTATORS, ROAD RACE IS CANCELED”, headlined the New York Herald Tribune on May 24, 1953. With a series of spectacular accidents, the death knell was sounded for racing on the public roads of Bridgehampton. The demise of street racing was caused when a competitor swerved to avoid a spectator chasing his wayward hat across the roadway. With racing speeds exceeding 130 mph and crowds scattered over the four-mile length of the circuit, snow fences and hay-bale barriers had clearly become inadequate to contain the fast-evolving sport.
A new idea: a purpose-built road racing circuit That fateful summer of 1953, a rare melding of captains of industry and urbane New Yorkers came together with local merchants, farmers and shade-tree mechanics to begin planning America's first purpose built road racing circuit. The Bridgehampton Road Races Corporation (BRRC) was authorized to issue stock on November 30, 1953. Its officers were local businessmen and the Board of Directors included representatives from the Motor Sports Club of America, Sports Car Club of America and Long Island Sports Car Association plus the larger-than-life proprietor of the Long Island Automotive Museum, Henry Austin Clark Jr. The directors immediately began searching for an appropriate site for the new circuit. An uninhabited hilltop on the north slope of the glacial ridge west from Sag Harbor looked promising. Known as "the backwoods", these lands were granted to local settlers by King James II as part of a Royal Charter in 1685 and were later parceled out to nearby farmers for hunting and foraging. The site of the future Bridgehampton Race Circuit still retained ancient Indian spear-points and an extensive network of Indian hunting trails. Property tax records revealed a multitude of small lots with hundreds of owners. Title searches reaching back over many generations revealed missing deeds and heirs and inaccurate property descriptions. Undaunted, the local enthusiasts began the arduous process of acquiring this rolling terrain, ideal for a race track "second to none in the world" according to the inaugural race program. President B.J. Corrigan's gas station on Montauk Highway and Austie Clark's auto museum became stockbroker's offices. Local businessmen and strollers were offered shares at $5 a clip from a sidewalk card table in front of the Bridgehampton Candy Kitchen, which remains a popular gathering place to this day. In the end, the BRRC was able to amass almost 600 acres of the forested ridge a few miles north of Bridgehampton at a mere $60 an acre. Two Grumman engineers, Al Piloff and Jake Bohn of Garden City, were commissioned to begin engineering drawings for the new circuit, but Ercole Colasante, an immigrant racer from Italy, fine tuned the design with his bulldozer. It was amazing, given the rush to build the track and the novelty of the idea that Bridgehampton turned out to be the jewel it was. The initial clearing of the woods caused a buzz of excitement from Southampton to Montauk when the radical topography of the circuit was revealed for the first time. These were small towns at the time so everyone came to participate in the excitement. As the track reached final grading, farmers and summer people alike imagined the excitement of a pack of race cars thundering past in a blur of color. The race circuit reflected the best features of three of Europe's finest race courses: Zandvoort, slicing through the sand dunes of Holland, Spa-Francorchamps, tunneling through the Ardennes forest in Belgium, and the roller-coaster excitement of England's Brands Hatch. The site layout featured a jaw-dropping 180-degree view of Long Island's North Fork, Shelter Island, Sag Harbor and the sailboats on Peconic Bay. The circuit had four vertical elevation changes totaling 130 feet and eight distinct corners, including a banked hairpin curve around a hillock at the lowest point of the course. A flat-out straightaway nearly 3/4 of a mile long suddenly disappears into a hair-raising decreasing radius downhill curve, known as Millstone Turn. More than one international star has called this steep decline, which is blind and taken flat out in most race cars, the most difficult turn in racing. Sam Posey, for one, said that sailing off the abyss in a sports racer was like “flying into an air pocket” in a plane. By 1957, the cast of characters at BRRC had changed somewhat. Mark Richard was replaced as Secretary by Henry Tredwell Jr. and Dr. William Graf became the Treasurer when Paul Widener took on the role of construction supervisor. Albert Humblet had resigned and was replaced by attorney Edwin Krom, illustrator Robert Powell and Briggs Cunningham's team manager, Alfred Momo. They joined the original directors Austin Clark, Earle Grainger, Robert Grier, Robert Hallock and Charles Moran, Jr.
The inaugural sports car races took place on September 28 and 29 of 1957, but it's a largely-forgotten fact that members of the Metropolitan Harley Davidson Dealer's Association were the guinea pigs who baptized the circuit three weeks earlier. They celebrated the opening with a full fledged Sportsmen's Road Race, offering free admission to all spectators arriving on motorcycles. The race program for the event, called Haybale as a salute to the past, refers to Long Island as "the cradle of American automobile racing." Henryk Szamota is listed as Race Chairman with Paul Whiteman and Rocky Graziano as Honorary Starters for the SCCA National Championship races. Six separate events for 15 classes of race cars 29 different makes and 139 drivers were featured. New York celebrities such as John Norwood, Vince Sardi and John Weitz took to the grid with many internationally known drivers including Briggs Cunningham, Bob Grossman, Walt Hansgen, Denise McCluggage and our soon to be World Champion, Phil Hill. The East Hampton Star reported cars parked as far as a mile away from the track entrance and estimated the attendance at 30,000.
NASCAR comes to town In 1958, NASCAR added a Bridgehampton date to its calendar. The "Good Ol' Boys" arrived in full force for a 100-mile Grand National Race for American sedans. Buck Baker, Junior Johnson, Lee Petty and Fireball Roberts were among the 31 entrants and led a thundering herd of Chevys, Fords and Pontiacs. The stockers tended to ignore, run over and vaporize corner markers and up to six dust clouds hung over the circuit at any one time. Historically, this is considered the first Grand National stock car race ever held on a non-oval road course. For spectators as well as drivers, it was a grand show. On the management side, however, things were less spectacular. Bank loans and promissory notes had to be used to complete the circuit. Once the track was opened, the track gates were overwhelmed and thousands of spectators failed to pay and simply walked in through the woods. Demands from creditors such as road builder Ercole Colasante plagued these sportsmen, and their corporation never really achieved financial stability. In 1959, Ed Krom persuaded Lou Figari, a professional sports promoter, to join with him, New York lawyer Art Schmidt and Henry Tredwell in creating Bridgehampton Enterprises Inc. Under lease from BRRC, these more astute businessmen worked pro bono to reduce the corporate debt and improve the circuit's spectator amenities. Most notably, the exclusive Circuit Club compound next to the timing tower and the Lowenbrau pedestrian bridge over the main straight were constructed. A nice block of armchair seats were salvaged from the venerable Polo Grounds in New York and erected across from the pit lane. Membership to the Circuit Club, where world-class raconteur Austie Clark played the role of maitre d’ and bartender, was a mere $5. The New York Daily Mirror came on board as sponsor of the Bridgehampton Double 400 in 1962. This was the first event ever sanctioned at the circuit by FIA, the worldwide automobile manufacturer's association that schedules professional racing throughout Europe. Long Island's South Fork was thereby blessed as a destination for the elite of the sports car racing community from around the world. Enzo Ferrari always sent a car for Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team, which considered Bridgehampton its home track. Chinetti introduced a young Mario Andretti, eventually to become America's second World Champion, to sports car racing at Bridgehampton. Said an awed Andretti after a few laps of The Bridge: “This place is really challenging.” In 1965 the races were extended to 500 kilometers and graced by a Memorial Trophy to the recently deceased Ed Krom. The natural amphitheater which commanded a panoramic view of the hairpin curve and the uphill straightaway was renamed Krom Overlook. From here, the peaceful serenity of the bays offered a stimulating contrast to the frenzied excitement of racing and the blaring rock music from the 60’s hippie vans on the hilltop. To those lucky enough to have watched a race from here, it’s an experience not to be forgotten. By the mid-60s, "The Bridge" was hosting four big-time spectator events annually. Bridgehampton Enterprises continued to operate the track throughout the glorious days of the Trans-Am, when Detroit automakers fought it out in the dunes of Bridgehampton and the U.S. Road Racing Championship, SCCA's first professional series. Then came its successor, the glorious Canadian American Challenge for Group 7 "Unlimited Prototypes" more popularly know as the Can-Am. This was international competition for the fastest cars in the world. There were virtually no rules -- experimentation and wild ideas ruled. It should be noted that these were frightening machines to drive. At speed, the Can-Am race cars were usually on the ragged edge of disaster. Aerodynamics was a primitive science, and cars at The Bridge always seemed to be trying to leap out of control. The race car builders concentrated on adding more power -- improvements to brakes, tires, steering and aerodynamics were an afterthought in those days. This made for some spectacular race-watching on the hills of Bridgehampton, where average lap speeds quickly topped 110 mph.
Hosting the world’s fastest cars and people The pits of Bridgehampton were equally fascinating. Cutting-edge racecars from around the world, film stars, some of the most beautiful women in the world and awestruck kids mingled in happy celebration of speed. On September 18, 1966, Californian Dan Gurney revisited his roots on Long Island when he ran away with the inaugural Bridgehampton Can-Am in a Lola T70 Ford. It remained the only Ford victory in the history of the Can-Am, and the excitement of Gurney, arguably America’s most popular racer during the 1960s, is clear.
This race was also celebrated for the introduction of the first-ever winged race car, Jim Hall’s fabulous Chaparral. When the white Chaparrals for world champion Phil Hill and Jim Hall were wheeled off the enclosed trailer, the sensation literally could be heard around the world.
That first Can-Am race featured American stars Mark Donohue, George Follmer, Sam Posey, Al Unser Sr. and others. Right from the outset, the CanAm attracted the world's best drivers and race car builders. In the first race, Gurney bested New Zealander Chris Amon by a few car lengths and World Champion John Surtees as well as Bruce McClaren, a constructor of genius and Formula One racer who went on to sweep the series in future years with his dazzling orange cars until his untimely death in pre-season testing in 1970.
In June, 1971, thanks to Fred Stecker and his SCCA Paddock Marshals, a flagpole was erected in pit lane with a bronze plaque summarizing McClaren's philosophy:
"To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one's ability, for I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone."
BRUCE McCLAREN 1937-1970
The last major professional race at Bridgehampton was a Trans-Am, held in June, 1970 in a driving rainstorm. Mark Donohue, in a Javelin, walloped the factory Ford and Chevy entries. By then, hurricanes had devastated the track property and management was too cash-poor to make the repairs and necessary safety improvements to continue professional racing.
But worldwide publicity from the Bridgehampton races had greatly enhanced the popularity of the South Fork and Hamptons as a vacation destination. In an effort to share in this newfound windfall, a town-wide zoning revision broad-brushed most of the agricultural and undeveloped land for residential development, including the 10 square miles of forested ridge along Peconic Bay. Inexcusably, town planners overlooked the long established recreational use of the Racetrack property which occupied nearly 600 acres atop the moraine. Against all established zoning principles, this demoted the race track to a non-conforming use which seriously hindered improvements to the property for recreation. It also raised the tax burden for farmers and the owners of undeveloped land which inevitably resulted in a gold rush for land speculators and house builders. In one fell swoop, the politicians had changed the primary engine of Southampton's economy from farming and tourism to land speculation.
Trouble on the horizon: noise complaints and encroaching development With new homes creeping ever nearer the track, noise complaints became a growing problem. The town government's knee-jerk reaction was to include the track in an anti-noise law aimed at discotheques and the like. In effect, this prohibited unmuffled professional events, the very essence of the circuit's attraction and its income base. Now the track had to enlist ever more amateur club races to pay the basic operating costs. The schedule quickly grew to full usage on every single weekend of the season, which only increased the noise complaints, even with sound level restrictions. In hindsight, limiting the racing schedule to fewer events each year would have been more effective for all concerned. Meanwhile, the original BRRC shareholders were nearing retirement age and had never received a dime in dividends. During the 1970's, at the urging of a few influential absentee stockholders who wanted to cash in their chips, the Board of Directors finally consented to list their property in this lucrative real estate market. Of course, "The Bridge" then became moribund while new and vastly more boring stadium-like venues were springing up around the country and the older racetracks were undergoing extensive modernization programs. Inevitably, the 1981 season opened on a sour note with the Lowenbrau Bridge collapsed in a ditch beside the paddock and a $3 Million purchase offer was put on the table from a condominium developer. That summer the Friends of Bridgehampton (later renamed the Bridgehampton Racing Heritage Group) was organized to urge the younger generation of enthusiasts to purchase the shares still held by nearly 1,000 elderly stockholders. In the meantime Carl Jensen, the track's jack of all trades, struggled to maintain the circuit in safe condition for the weekly amateur races.
Bridgehampton, saved by environmentalists and racers and Ol’ Blue Eyes. The racers were saved by the bell when this initial proposal was defeated by Friends of Bridgehampton and an environmental watchdog called the Group for the South Fork, which fights to preserve open space in the face of rampant overdevelopment. Thanks to extensive local press coverage afforded by Nissan driver and Academy Award winner Paul Newman, condominium developer Carol Konner left behind a $300,000 down payment which promptly disappeared into the corporate coffers. For Bridgehampton’s 25th anniversary in 1982, Hollywood script writer Ed Spielman crafted this ode to The Bridge: “What is it about places like "The Bridge" that inspire humans to go fast and risk death or crippling injury? It may be a primeval will to win over others or to tame these mechanical beasts. But it's probably the heightened sense of elation that comes from self-mastery, even as one waits on the grid for the green flag to fall.” Even though the racing was no longer world-class, the thrills were for cars and, increasingly motorcycles, which shared the calendar with them. Early one midsummer morning an angel landed at a Ferrari Club driver's meeting in the form of Robert M. Rubin, a wealthy Wall Street trader and car collector. Our weekly pitch to the congregation of racers to "Save The Bridge" brought a raised hand from Rubin, who turned out to be the most competitive, press-on-regardless kind of guy seen at Bridgehampton in years. He immediately set out to acquire enough shares to tip the balance in favor of racing. After a few months of frenetic proxy collecting, a meeting of the shareholders to vote on the sale of the property was scheduled and Rubin eventually acquired virtually all the remaining shares and became the sole owner of the property. For several years, Rubin attempted to gain a temporary exemption from the noise restrictions to stage an east coast version of the hugely-popular vintage car racing weekends held annually at California’s Laguna Seca. But he was repeatedly turned away by the Southampton Town Council, which found it more expedient to support housing developers than the track owner. These land speculators had been assuring clients that “racing was over” at Bridgehampton, and they needed a guarantee. Becoming aware of the politico-developer axis that was ruling Southampton, Rubin suggested that if the government didn't want his racetrack he’d build a golf course and some 40 houses, the choice was theirs. The Town Council opted for golf, ostensibly to rid themselves of those onerous noise complaints. Of course, this brought great joy to developers who owned large tracts of woodlands within earshot of the circuit. Over 100 area residents protested the plan, many of them demanding a return to racing. For Bridgehampton’s unwavering racing supporters, a new battle had to be enjoined against our erstwhile savior, but our real enemies were the town politicians. Newsday, Long Island’s daily newspaper editorialized that "if the town is foolish enough to favor golf over racing, it'll reap a whirlwind of protest. The Bridgehampton Race Circuit was and could again be a world-class tourist attraction.” SCCA Regional Director Chris Morales began a personal crusade to ensure that the track remained in presentable condition for amateur club racing, which continued through the 1997 season. Steve Behr, Bob Devol and Peter Klebnikov, early members of the Friends of Bridgehampton, suggested changing our name to Bridgehampton Racing Heritage Group (BRHG) to reflect the legendary importance of the track. We gained new allies when the same neighbors who had complained about noise began to worry about the impact of a golf course on their drinking water. Depletion of the limited fresh water supply has long been a source of concern for all of Long Island. The racetrack site is a prime recharge area for the greatest volume of fresh water for the entire Hamptons. Citing the history of polluted wells surrounding the nearby Noyac Golf Club, residents and the Group for the South Fork pointed out that golf course chemicals threatened the drinking water. Bumper stickers - NOISE POLLUTION IS TRANSIENT--WATER POLLUTION IS FOREVER sprouted on cars. In a rare pairing of environmentalists and racers, lawsuits were filed against the golf course plan by the Group for the South Fork and BRHG.
The last lap After months of sometimes raucous public hearings, which were overwhelmingly anti-golf, the Southampton Town Board chose to ignore the pleadings of local residents and the results of community opinion polls by BRHG. Glib experts from the golf industry arrived armed with polished promises about a "clean golf course" and minimal usage of the precious fresh water supply, Nor did it help that the New York State Office of Historic Preservation notified Southampton Town that the Bridgehampton Race Circuit had been deemed worthy of inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places and was now listed on the State Register. Local government, it turned out, is solely responsible for the protection of historic sites, and we’ve seen how well that works. In 1998, the Southampton Planning Board approved the golf course and construction of the fairways began in the spring of 1999. The final checkered flag fell at The Bridge. International road racing on Long Island was finished, 95 years after William K. Vanderbilt Jr. first challenged the European automakers in 1904. Today, The Bridge Golf Course is soliciting memberships at several hundred thousand dollars each. To his credit, owner Bob Rubin has worked hard to celebrate the unique history of the Bridgehampton Race Circuit. The golf clubhouse, an angular homage to Eero Saarinen’s TWA Terminal at JFK airport, takes full advantage of the spectacular view of Peconic Bay and its interior decor is a virtual museum of motorsports at The Bridge. Rubin has preserved over a mile of the race track (including the legendary Millstone Turn) as well as artifacts such as guard rails and flag stations. And so Bridgehampton survives as a ghost track. Indeed, immediately upon entering the site, visitors will see the first turn and once again imagine the excitement of a pack of razor-tuned race cars thundering down Millstone in a blur of color that gets brighter with every year.
Guy Frost, president, Bridgehampton Racing Heritage Group, November, 2007
[edit] External links
- Bridgehampton, New York is at coordinates Coordinates:
pt:Bridgehampton (Nova York) vo:Bridgehampton
