A river runs through ... Kingsbridge?

Tibbetts Brook — which has flowed beneath Kingsbridge for almost 100 years — may soon see the light of day. 

In addition to investing $360 million in various projects to improve the city’s waterfronts and waterways Vision 2020, announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn on March 14, includes a long term plan of bringing the buried brook back to the surface. 

“Marble Hill: Coordinate with DEP in long term plan to restore Tibbetts Brook,” is included in the 190-page report created by the Department of City Planning. The item refers to Marble Hill but the brook would mostly run through Kingsbridge if and when it is “daylighted.”

Daylighting is the process of uncovering streams or rivers that have been buried to help capture stormwater, revive wetland habitat and bring back some of the area’s natural environment. Bringing back the brook would be a joint effort of the Department of Environmental Protection and the Parks Department, according to the report.

Bram Gunther, chief of forestry and horticulture for the Parks Department, came up with the idea. The project, he said, would resemble ones already completed in Zurich, Switzerland and Portland, Ore. He said the plan is still in its nascent stages and a route has not yet been selected, but that the brook’s historical route would serve as a reference point.

Tibbetts Brook originally flowed through Kingsbridge, winding between Tibbetts Avenue and Irwin Avenue. It joined Spuyten Duyvil Creek, then located to the north of Marble Hill before that waterway was filled in the early 1900s. In 1699, Jacobus Van Cortlandt dammed the brook and created Van Cortlandt Lake. 

The small stream, which originates in Yonkers, now makes its way underground at the south end of Van Cortlandt Lake and runs underneath Tibbett Avenue, according the Parks Department website. The water then empties into the Harlem River Ship Canal.