Tarrytown, village, Westchester County, southeastern New York, a residential suburb of New York City on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, opposite Nyack; settled by the Dutch late 17th century, incorporated 1870. It is the eastern terminus of the Tappan Zee Bridge (completed 1956). Manufactures of the area include transportation equipment, machinery, and scientific instruments. Marymount College (1919) is here. Tarrytown, with its neighboring villages Irvington and North Tarrytown, composes the Sleepy Hollow country made famous by the writer Washington Irving. Sunnyside, Irving's home from 1835 to 1859, is in Tarrytown, as is Lyndhurst (1838), the home of the financier Jay Gould. In North Tarrytown are Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where Washington Irving and the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie are buried; the Old Dutch Church (1690); and Philipsburg Manor (circa 1683). Also in the area is Pocantico Hills, an estate of the Rockefeller family. In 1780, during the American Revolution, Tarrytown was the site of the capture of the British spy Major John André. After the Revolution it developed as a river port, but its principal growth dates from the arrival of the railroad in 1849. The name Tarrytown may be derived from the Dutch tarwe, meaning “wheat,” or from a resident named Tarry. Population 10,648 (1980); 11,090 (2000).
