WHERE: Park trails and local streets along or near the lower Bronx River
START: Soundview Ferry Terminal (fully accessible)
FINISH: Simpson Street subway station (2 and 5 trains; fully accessible)
DISTANCE: 3.9 miles (6.3 kilometers)
Photographs by Michael Cairl
The NYC Ferry has received some criticism as a rather heavily subsidized boat ride for tourists. There is some truth to that but it also provides fast and cheap transportation to and from some otherwise hard-to-get-to parts of the City. New York City’s waterways constitute an underutilized path for public transportation.
Having discovered that I could take NYC Ferry from the foot of Wall Street in Manhattan to Soundview in the Bronx, a 50-minute ride for $2.75, I put together a good walk combining some unexplored territory for me, and a route I’ve biked and/or walked. From the time I left the subway at Wall Street, to the time I stepped off the train at Grand Army Plaza going home, the whole trip was accessible.
Route of today’s walk, courtesy Google Maps.
Profile of today’s walk, courtesy Google Maps.
The ferry from Wall Street to Soundview gives a good look at different parts of the City.. Not well known but very interesting is North Brother Island (lower left corner on the map); the ferry passed between it and privately owned South Brother Island. From the ferry one can see the ruins of Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island. This was a City hospital for the chronically ill, and its most famous resident was “Typhoid Mary” Mallon.
The Soundview ferry terminal is at Clasons Point, across the East River from College Point, Queens (see my post “On the Trail of Conrad Poppenhusen” under “The Stair Streets of New York City”), just west of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, and just across the Bronx River from the Hunts Point Terminal Market, from which most of the City’s perishable foods are distributed. Clasons Point Park is a little riverfront park at the ferry terminal, with sweeping views. Soundview Avenue runs northwest from Clasons Point Park, and after a short distance the Shorehaven waterfront path begins.
Left to right: selfie at Clasons Point Park, just off the ferry, with the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge in the background; view from the Shorehaven Esplanade with the towers of Manhattan in the distance; bungalows along Leland Avenue.
At the end of the Shorehaven Esplanade I continued on Bronx River Avenue and then Leland Avenue, into one of those parts of thew Bronx where I almost had to slap myself and ask, “Am I in the Bronx?” This is a community I’ve biked through a few times on the NYC Century and the Tour de Bronx. It is a community near the water, mostly of small bungalows nestled close to each other. It is not at all the Bronx that is often portrayed in the media and it is not the only such community in the Bronx. The Country Club neighborhood, Riverdale, and the brownstones on Alexander Avenue in the South Bronx, all have left me astonished, and not just the first time I have seen them. Flags of the United States and Puerto Rico were flying in about equal number from in front of people’s homes.
At O’Brien and Leland Avenues I started out on the bike and pedestrian trail through Sound View Park. This park hugs the mouth of the Bronx River. Along most of the trail it seemed that I was in a dandelion snowstorm. Like most of the City’s parks that operate without a not-for-profit conservancy, Sound View Park needs some attention, but it is generally in good condition and it proved to be a quiet oasis.
Left to right: First row, path in Sound View Park with a lot of dandelion seeds, and NYC Greenway roundel. Second row, two sides of the same sign at the north entrance to the Sound View Park trail (Colgate and Lafayette Avenues.)
Along the north end of the Sound View Park trail are several baseball fields, all of which saw a lot of use today. Beyond the north end of the trail are a few blocks of high-rise apartment houses and assorted light industry, before returning to the Bronx River and entering Concrete Plant Park. I wrote about this park in my 2020 post entitled “Lower Bronx River Greenway,” so I won’t repeat it here but please refer back to it. Suffice it to say that it is an urban gem and the revival of the Bronx River as a home for fish and birds is testimony to the great work of the Bronx River Alliance.
Left to right: the Bronx River looking upstream from the Bruckner Boulevard bridge, with Concrete Plant Park in the center to the left of the river; selfie in Concrete Plant Park.
In the “Lower Bronx River Greenway” post I also discussed, and included photos of, the ruins of the Westchester Avenue station of the New Haven railroad. It’s still there and in need of an “angel” to restore it to a good use.
Busy Westchester Avenue near the Simpson Street station.
Leaving Concrete Plant Park, I walked west along Westchester Avenue to get the subway home from Simpson Street station. Along most of its length Westchester Avenue is in the shadow of elevated subway lines: the White Plains Road line (2 and 5 trains) and the Pelham Bay Park line (6 train). Most of the portion of Westchester Avenue that I walked is most of what is not covered by an elevated line. The fully accessible Simpson Street station is one short block from the busy intersection of Southern Boulevard and Westchester Avenue, a commercial hub for this lively, ethnically diverse neighborhood, and the junction of bus and subway lines.
This was a fine walk, mostly far away from the City but well within it. It was good to see people out and about in these late stages of the pandemic. Most of all, as I keep pushing myself I advance the recovery I’ve taken full ownership of. Many people have helped me up and helped keep me going, and continue to do so. Ultimately, stroke recovery has always been up to me, and I’m having fun doing this.
Onward!