The old Gowanus road wound crookedly around the margin of the marshes, and near Fourth avenue, at 35th street, it became the old Narrows lane, which extended on some undefined course to the vicinity of Fort Hamilton, which was the district known as Nayack. Near 86th street it probably ran into the King's highway, the westerly end of the ancient path known as Mechawanienck. It thus formed the connection by which we may assume that the Manhattan natives resident at Nayack were wont to pass on their way to revisit their one-time home, and such of their relatives as still clung to the island.

A little south of Gowanus lane the main pathway divided. To the east it diverged toward Bedford, and southward it ran to Flatlands. Of the two, the former was probably the more important, since it extended through the borough of Queens to the heart of Long Island.

It ran nearly due east, along the base of the Green hills, and was known in early days as the Rockaway path, as it gave access to the country of that chieftaincy.