WHERE: The Old Croton Aqueduct Trail and the Manhattan College Steps, Bronx
START: McLean Avenue and Lee Avenue, Yonkers (No. 4 Bee-Line bus from Woodlawn subway station, 4 train)
FINISH: West 238 Street and Riverdale Avenue (Bx7 bus to 207 Street subway station, A train - fully accessible)
DISTANCE: 3.1 miles (5 kilometers)
Photographs by Daniel Murphy except as noted. Map courtesy of footpathapp.com.
Route and profile of this walk. Route reads from right to left, profile from left to right.
On this walk I returned to the Old Croton Aqueduct, sections of which I’ve walked and written about before. The aqueduct opened in 1842 and gave New York City, then limited to Manhattan, its first reliable supply of fresh water. On “The Stair Streets of New York City” page, see the posts entitled “The Joker Stairs (West Bronx) and High Bridge (Bronx to Manhattan),” “Back to the High Bridge,” “West Bronx Mix,” and “The Stick It to the Stroke Stair Climb and Gallivant.” This walk included a section of the Old Croton Aqueduct in Van Cortlandt Park and a return to the Manhattan College Steps.
We started out just over the New York City line in Yonkers, where after a short walk from the bus we reached the Old Croton Aqueduct trail. This is a dirt path atop the old aqueduct, going through the woods of Van Cortlandt Park.
Yours Truly where the trail crosses into New York City.
The trail is secluded and quiet except for the sound of distant traffic from the Saw Mill River Parkway and Mosholu Parkway. Along the way there is a large masonry structure called a weir chamber, one of several along the aqueduct. Inside the weir chamber was a gate that could be lowered to close off the downstream section for repairs, the water in the aqueduct being diverted to a nearby stream, in this case Tibbetts Brook.
Weir chamber.
Tibbetts Brook is a small stream that begins its journey in the City of Yonkers and flows south into Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. The stream cuts through the middle of the parkland into Van Cortlandt Lake, then dips underground beneath Tibbett Avenue, flowing southwest into the Harlem River Ship Canal. In the 18th century, Tibbetts Brook was dammed to create the lake that still exists in the park, and part of the brook was buried underground in 1912.
Tibbetts Brook is a major link in the natural drainage pattern of Van Cortlandt Park, which encompasses a watershed of slightly under 850 acres (344 hectares). Runoff collects in the stream, drains into Van Cortlandt Lake, and eventually empties into the Harlem River by way of a network of underground sewers. Development along the waterway, such as highway construction, often creates new sources of highly concentrated runoff that disrupt the delicate balance of the Harlem River ecosystem, causing erosion and contamination with salt, oil, and roadside debris.
From the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance website:
Tibbetts Brook is added into the sewer system unnecessarily, so environmental activists have been advocating for it to be removed from the sewer system and “daylighted.” Daylighting a body of water is the process of moving the water that has been diverted to an underground pipe above ground, and adding in components to enhance the space.
Green infrastructure is one component of this process, to reduce flooding and mimic how the natural land would deal with water. The goal of daylighting Tibbetts Brook would not only be to decrease the amount of [combined sewage overflows] that enter the Hudson River, but also to benefit the park and surrounding communities. The project will extend an existing greenway, add better access to the area, and will become a new stretch of public park for the community to enjoy.
The trail continues through woodland to a walkway alongside the Major Deegan Expressway (Interstate 87) and an accessible ramp down to the Van Cortlandt Golf Course, the oldest public golf course in the United States.
The Old Croton Aqueduct Trail south of the weir chamber,
The section of the trail alongside the Major Deegan Expressway, crossing Mosholu Parkway.
Monument to Algernon Sydney Sullivan (1826-1887) near the golf course clubhouse. “Jurist - Statesman - Orator. An immaculate life devoted with never failing fidelity to public and private trusts.” According to Wikipedia, Sullivan “was an American lawyer noted for his role in the business law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. … In 1857, Sullivan moved to New York City, and soon took a prominent position as a lawyer and public-spirited citizen. He was retained to defend the officers and crew of the Confederate schooner Savannah, the first vessel to be captured during the Civil War, who were on trial for their lives on the charge of piracy. From 1870 to 1873 Sullivan was assistant district attorney for New York City, and upon leaving that office he formed a partnership with Hermann Kobbe and Ludlow Fowler. In 1875, he was appointed public administrator, during which he instituted many reforms, reducing the charges upon estates administered, and, in spite of pressure, retaining in his service efficient assistants of a political party different from his own. In 1878 the firm of Sullivan, Kobbe & Fowler was dissolved and he formed a partnership with William Nelson Cromwell, under the name of Sullivan & Cromwell, which firm name is still retained by the successors to his business.” Why is this monument in this place? Who knows. Photograph by Michael Cairl.
We left Van Cortlandt Park to walk south on Bailey Avenue, then west on West 238 Street to the Manhattan College Steps. Up the stairs we went, then west and uphill one more block to lunch at the An Beal Bocht Cafe. For me, it was a return to a fine place. The cafe was fairly full with people watching the World Cup quarter-final between England and France. This being an Irish establishment, I don’t think many were cheering for England. A lunch of shepherd’s pie hit the spot on this chilly day.
At the base of the Manhattan College Steps. Left to right: Michael, Dan, Yours Truly. Photograph by Paul Murphy.
Graffiti of encouragement, halfway up the Manhattan College Steps. Photograph by Michael Cairl.
Eating outside at An Beal Bocht Cafe, the crew on this walk: Left to right, Paul, Yours Truly, Joe, Michael, Dan, Andrew. Photograph by the bartender at An Beal Bocht.
This was a good walk on a perfect day for it. It highlighted the history and ecology of this chunk of the Bronx, gave a walk in the woods that one doesn’t usually associate with the Big City, included a return to the Manhattan College Steps (120 steps, handrails too low, risers too high), and I had great company for the walk. The section through the park was just east of a walk along the Putnam Trail, a little bit to the west, that I did exactly a year before. Walks north on the Putnam Trail and Old Croton Aqueduct might be in the future.