WHERE: Stairs on West 166 Street, Bronx, and in Highbridge Park, Manhattan
START: 167 Street subway station, Bronx (4 train)
FINISH: 168 Street subway station, Manhattan (A, C trains, fully accessible, and 1 train, not accessible)
DISTANCE: 2.1 miles (3.4 kilometers)
Photographs by Michael Cairl and Jordan Centeno
Route of today’s walk, courtesy Google Maps.
Profile of today’s walk, courtesy Google Maps.
One of my early stair street challenges was the “Joker Stairs” on West 167 Street near Yankee Stadium; read my post about that. In that part of the Bronx are several other long stair streets; today I tackled the West 166 Street stairs. then walked to the High Bridge, which I also discussed in the “Joker Stairs” post. The day started out overcast but became sunny.
The West 166 Street stairs have not become the draw for visitors that the “Joker Stairs” have. They are in good condition but have a fair amount of garbage on them. 120 steps up, in the block from Jerome Avenue to Anderson Avenue, then a steep climb in the next block to Woodycrest Avenue.
Left to right: the West 166 Street stairs looking up from Jerome Avenue, the West 166 Street stairs looking down from Anderson Avenue, scene outside a house on Woodycrest Avenue.
Roundel in the High Bridge walkway.
Between the top of the stairs and the High Bridge the neighborhood is not wealthy but it is pleasant, and the hilly terrain continued the good workout of the stairs.
The pedestrian and bicycle path on the High Bridge is truly one of the gems of New York and is far from the tourist trail. For years it was a favorite promenade and was brought back to life in 2015 after a splendid restoration.
From the water tower at the Manhattan end of the bridge, one turns into Highbridge Park and can either follow the path to near West 165 Street, or climb a long set of stairs to the Highbridge Pool (a City facility built in the 1930s when “Master Builder” Robert Moses was the City’s Parks Commissioner among other offices he held) and exit the park at West 172 Street and Amsterdam Avenue. On my last visit here I took the path; today, I climbed 96 steps that were more arduous than the West 166 Street stairs a little while earlier.
Highbridge Park stairs looking up and looking down.
From there it was over to busy Broadway for lunch and then to the 168 Street subway station for the trip here. At 168 Street there are actually two stations: the lower station (1 train) opened in 1906 as part of the first subway, and the upper station (A and C trains) opened in 1932. The lower station is a great space: a barrel vault 50 feet wide that can be reached only by elevators, with a pair of sturdy iron bridges connecting the two platforms. Recently restored, it is worth a look around. When it opened, it served Hilltop Park, the home of the Yankees before they moved first to the Polo Grounds as tenants of the Giants, and then (in 1923) to the first Yankee Stadium. The site of Hilltop Park is now occupied by Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.
This was a good workout of a walk and the Highbridge Park stairs, which I had climbed once before the stroke, proved to be a good challenge. Stair count: 216 up.