WHERE: The East Midtown Greenway on the east side of Manhattan
START: Lexington Avenue - 63 Street subway station ,(F and Q trains), fully accessible
FINISH: Lexington Avenue - 53 Street subway station (E and M trains), linked to the 51 Street subway station (6 train); both stations are fully accessible
DISTANCE: 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers)
Photographs by Michael Cairl. Map courtesy Google Maps.
Route of this walk, reading from top to bottom.
Happy New Year! The pedestrian/bike path on the east side of Manhattan, a discontinuous mess twenty years ago, is being made continuous and accessible, slowly. New York City recently completed a segment on pilings in the East River, outboard of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, from East 54 Street to East 60 Street. I took advantage of a quiet New Year’s Day for a fully accessible walk to and along this new segment, called the East Midtown Greenway.
The walk started at the Lexington Avenue - 63 Street subway station, using the elevators at the 3 Avenue end of the station to reach the street. From there I walked east on East 63 Street to the pedestrian suspension bridge spanning the FDR Drive to the ramp down to the waterfront promenade. At the bottom of the ramp turn to the left to walk uptown (see the post on this page entitled “John Finley Walk, Carl Schurz Park, Bobby Wagner Walk”) or straight ahead toward the East Midtown Greenway.
The East Midtown Greenway is not long but it is magnificent. It has completely separate pedestrian and bike paths. Both are wide and the pedestrian path has plenty of places to sit.
North end of the East Midtown Grenway.
The views are worth the effort to get there.
To the right of the United Nations Secretariat building, one can see One World Trade Center in the distance.
Leading to East 54 Street, an arch bridge over the FDR Drive is part of a fully accessible exit.
From the ramp off the arch bridge, cross Sutton Place South and walk west on East 54 Street. Between 1 Avenue and 2 Avenue I found this grand structure from a time when municipal architecture was good and solid, the Constance Baker Motley Recreation Center.
From the NYC Parks website: “Located in the heart of midtown, the 54th Street Recreation Center has been a community staple for years. It is named in honor of Constance Baker Motley. Motley, born in 1921, was the first African American woman to become a federal judge. She was a leading jurist and legal advocate during the Civil Rights movement, and the first Black woman to serve as Manhattan Borough President.”
I continued to the Lexington Avenue - 53 Street subway station. The elevator from the street is at Lexington Avenue and East 52 Street and serves the mezzanine connecting this station and the 51 Street station.
This was an easy, enjoyable, fully accessible walk. If you’re ambitious you could do it in reverse, starting at the Lexington Avenue - 53 Street station, and at the 63 Street pedestrian bridge keep walking north on the promenade, following the path described in my post “John Finley Walk, Carl Schurz Park, Bobby Wagner Walk.”