In the township of Lewisboro of Westchester County, NY there is a
hamlet whose name is spelled both as Golden's Bridge and Goldens
Bridge. I am seeking the official spelling. I have inquired at the
township office and at the Westchester County offices. No one seems to
know. Even at the railroad station, there are a couple of signs each
 showing a different spelling.  On the Web, various spellings are
also encountered - often in the same document. I inquired of the town
historian who did not bother to reply. The answer that both spellings
are acceptable is not what I am looking for.

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Request for Question Clarification by juggler-ga on 17 Jul 2002 12:36 PDT

What type of sources would you consider definitive? 

Written histories of the town? Newspaper articles?

You're not going to like this, but there seem to be THREE names for
this community, although one is clearly the "official" name.

The following is the result from a query of The Geographical Names
Information System at the US Geological Survey:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnis/web_query.gnis_web_query_form

Feature Name:  Goldens Bridge 
Feature Type:  populated place 
State:  New York 
County:  Westchester 
Variant Name(s) Golden's Bridge 
 Goldenbridge 
USGS 7.5' x 7.5' Map:  Croton Falls 
 411736N 
 0734038W 

"The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), developed by the USGS
in cooperation with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN), contains
information about almost 2 million physical and cultural geographic
features in the United States. The Federally recognized name of each
feature described in the data base is identified, and references are
made to a feature's location by State, county, and geographic
coordinates. The GNIS is our Nation's official repository of domestic
geographic names information."

It appears that the United States Post Office prefers "Goldens
Bridge."

http://www.usps.com/ncsc/lookups/lookup_ctystzip.html

If you enter "Golden's Bridge NY," the USPS's ZIP Code Lookup defaults
to "GOLDENS BRIDGE NY."

The classic film "Miracle on 34th Street" presented the U.S. Post
Office as an acceptable reference for proving the existence of Santa
Claus, so perhaps the USPS may be considered the ultimate authority on
this matter, as well. ;-)

Since it is probably not incorporated, there is really no "official"
name. I lived there for several years, a long time ago, and don't
recall ever seeing the "Golden's" or "Goldenbridge" spellings.

This is a clarification for juggler-ga. The comments I have received
have provided sufficient information. I think the comment about the
Post Office being the authority was a good as any.

Thanks for your interest.

Howard