Walking the High Bridge – June 14, 2015

I need to start getting up these picture posts more quickly.  Still, Real Life and day jobs take up time we all wish we could use for other things.

Anyway, we weren’t doing much of anything special when Red Molly notified me that the High Bridge was open again for the first time in forty years.  That is a genuine piece of Hidden New York, unknown to tourists, and even most New Yorkers outside the immediate areas where the High Bridge runs aground in Manhattan and the Bronx.

Of course we had to go.

So we set out that bright, hot Sunday afternoon and walked down to the end of Dyckman Street, where it joins the Harlem River Drive.  The Highbridge Park runs up that high, so we were able to walk along the Drive for some distance, and we got some good pictures along the way:

Eventually, though, we started to get a little lost, so we cut through the park up to Amsterdam Avenue. and we found our  way to the High Bridge’s actual location at 173rd street with little trouble.  We saw some interesting things along the way:

(I’ve often wondered what it would be like to have something like this within easy walking distance; when I was a kid my mother had to drive me to the YMCA in the nearest city.  On the other hand, I had open space.)

But finally, we found the High Bridge itself:

Okay, so that’s the High Bridge Water Tower.  It’s still an important NYC Landmark, and you should go see it, especially because it’s right there.  Anyway, here’s the High Bridge:

A couple of pictures taken along the way…beautiful views, but next time I’ll put the lens right up to one of the holes in the safety netting.

Looking South

Looking North

Looking South, Bronx side…the train tracks

And finally, the Bronx Side perspective:

A once-lost bit of New York has been returned to us.  I recommend that everyone who cares about such things – or who wishes to see the true New York beyond what is served up for the tourists – get out to see it.