WHERE: Robert F. Kennedy (Triborough) Bridge and Randall’s Island Connector
SUBWAY AT START: Astoria Boulevard (N, W; fully accessible)
SUBWAY AT FINISH: Cypress Avenue (6)
DISTANCE: 3.3 miles (5.3 kilometers)
Photographs by Michael Cairl and Ryan Eick except where noted
The RFK Bridge - I call it by its original name, the Triborough Bridge - is actually three spans radiating from Randall’s Island in the East River: a suspension bridge to Queens, a vertical lift bridge to Manhattan, and a truss bridge to the Bronx. It opened in 1936 as the creation of that deeply flawed genius, Robert Moses. The magnum opus about Moses is The Power Broker by Robert Caro, worth reading all 1,400 pages, and after reading it I truly understood that we all leave a mixed legacy as we walk the earth. Moses was responsible for the Triborough Bridge, turning Randall’s Island and Ward’s Island into parks, nearly all the public swimming pools in New York City, and perhaps the best public work of its kind anywhere, Jones Beach State Park. He also was responsible for eviscerating neighborhoods with expressways and sought to keep nonwhite people away from the state parks on Long Island. Ultimately, he met his match in the Brooklyn Heights Association, Jane Jacobs, and most of all, then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller.
Left to right: map of the walk from Astoria to Randall’s Island; map of the walk from Randall’s Island to the Bronx. Maps courtesy Google Maps.
I’ve biked over all three legs of the Triborough Bridge many times but never walked any part of the bridge until today. My friend Ryan joined me in Astoria, Queens, at the eastern end of the bridge, for this walk. The bridge has 3 sets of stairs of 22 steps each, one at the Astoria end and one at either end of the suspension span. It was a cloudy but pleasant day, perfect for this walk.
Clockwise from top left: plaque at the Astoria stairway showing the bridge and Randall’s Island Park; the Queens span of the bridge (courtesy www.nycroads.com) with the walkway above the road and on the right; the Hell Gate Bridge seen from mid-span of the Triborough Bridge; the last set of stairs going toward Randall’s Island, with friend Ryan on the right.
A wide ramp leads from the suspension span down to Randall’s Island. This. along with adjoining Ward’s Island, has walking and biking trails, many baseball fields, a stadium for sports and concerts, a water treatment facility, the Fire Department’s training center, and the headquarters of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. From the bottom of the ramp we walked a little distance along Central Road, where there was once an arch bridge linking Randall’s Island and Ward’s Island before they were connected by landfill, to the beginning of the Randall’s Island Connector.
Two views of the now-gone Little Hell Gate Arch Bridge, constructed 1936, demolished in the late 1990s. In the first image, the current Central Road is in front of the arch bridge and the larger span is the railroad viaduct. The second image shows the bridge as it looked when I would bike across it. Photos courtesy of Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress).
Profile of the walk from Queens to Randall’s Island, courtesy Google Maps.
Profile of the walk from Randall’s Island to the Bronx, courtesy Google Maps.
The Randall’s Island Connector opened about five years ago as a low-level alternate route to the Bronx. There was, and remains, a footpath on each side of the Bronx span of the bridge, but access to it is a steep ramp with right-angle turns on the Randall’s Island side and a spiral ramp on the Bronx side. The Connector is much more negotiable and pleasant. It is tucked underneath the arched supports of the viaduct leading to the Hell Gate Bridge, used by CSX freight trains and Amtrak passenger trains. The view through these supports is just mesmerizing.
The Connector comes to an end on East 132 Street. This part of the Bronx, Port Morris, has a printing plant for the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, a FedEx facility, and a lot of warehouses, truck terminals, and light industry. Just to the north is the Oak Point rail freight yard, and beyond that, the huge Hunts Point Terminal Market. Just over four blocks from the Bronx end of the Connector, in this improbable location, is the Bronx Brewery and Empanology, where Ryan and I stopped for lunch and beer. They have a small beer garden in the back and tables out front. A good contingent of cyclists stopped there, and by the time we left there were people waiting for tables in this not-at-all picturesque setting. From there I made the short walk to the subway at Cypress Avenue for the trip home.
Clockwise from top left: me at the southern end of the Randall’s Island Connector; view of the Connector where it crosses the Bronx Kill; scene in front of the Bronx Brewery and Empanology (approach to the Hell Gate Bridge in the background); mosaic at the Cypress Avenue subway station.
Total steps: 44 up, 22 down, total 66. This was an excellent walk; I felt strong and rewarded at the end.