Reprise: Back to the Henry Hudson Bridge
WHERE: The Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan and the Spuyten Duyvil and Kingsbridge neighborhoods of the Bronx
START: Broadway and Dyckman Street, Manhattan (Dyckman Street subway station, A train)
FINISH: West 238 Street and Broadway, the Bronx (238 Street subway station, 1 train)
DISTANCE: 3.1 miles (5 kilometers)
Route of this walk, reading from left to right, courtesy footpathmap.com.
This walk began at a grander than usual subway entrance.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) recently completed reconstruction of the bike and pedestrian path on the Henry Hudson Bridge. This was the impetus for this walk, mostly a reprise of a walk I led a couple of years ago. See my earlier post “To the Henry Hudson Bridge and Beyond” on the “Stair Streets” page.
The approaches to the bridge path were made accessible and the path on the bridge was more than doubled in width. Approaching the bridge from Inwood Hill Park is still very hilly and a good workout. Below is a below-and-after (July 2022 and May 2025) of the reconstructed Manhattan approach.
From the MTA website:
Named in honor of Henry Hudson, the explorer whose ship, the Half Moon, anchored near this site in 1609, this bridge opened in 1936. It connects northern Manhattan to the Bronx and was built as part of the Henry Hudson Parkway by the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority. When it opened, it was the longest plate girder arch and fixed arch bridge in the world. Originally built with only one level, the bridge's design allowed for the construction of a second level if traffic demands increased. Within a year and a half the upper level was opened. The upper level carries northbound traffic; the lower one is for southbound traffic.
The Bronx approach to the walkway is also accessible, with a new crosswalk to a sidewalk that, while it is uneven, is nicely routed around a magnificent tree.
The rest of the walk repeated the earlier walk except for the 232 Street stairs, and on this walk lunch was at a great old-school Jewish deli on West 235 Street, Liebman’s.
The handrails on the Manhattan College Steps are still too low, and in places are loose, as shown in the images below (thanks, Lewis). The complete set of handrails here should be either raised and properly secured, or replaced. They are unsafe in their current condition. To the city’s Department of Transportation and Bronx Community Board 8: fix this, please.
