Route of today’s walk.
WHERE: Stairs at East 174 Street Bridge and at the Boone Slope, Bronx
START: 174 Street subway station (2 and 5 trains)
FINISH: West Farms Square - East Tremont Avenue subway station (2 and 5 trains)
DISTANCE: 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometers)
Photographs by Michael Cairl. Maps courtesy of Google Maps.
Profile of today’s walk.
For this sunny, cold day I had planned a longer walk that would have taken me beyond today’s end point, through the part of Bronx Park that hosts the Bronx Zoo, to Pelham Parkway. I’ll do that another time. As it was, today’s walk had it all: a steep downhill on East 173 Street, patches of black ice in Starlight Park (I was able to maneuver around them), a brisk wind from the north, and three stair streets that, if they’re not the worst I’ve yet navigated, come close.
I started at the elevated subway station at East 174 Street and Southern Boulevard. This is one of the oldest segments of the subway, having opened in November 1904. A block from the station, at East 173 Street and Boston Road, is a real gem of municipal architecture, the Herman Ridder Junior High School. From urbanarchive.org:
Constructed between 1929 and 1931, Public School 98 was, as noted in the Landmarks Commission report, "the first thoroughly 'modernist' Art Deco public school building in New York City." Planned and designed by the Board of Education's Bureau of Design and Construction, headed by Walter C. Martin, the building was strikingly new in style, both in massing and in ornamentation. The entrance and corner tower, seen here, mimics the set-back look of contemporary Deco skyscrapers. It was also the first school structure planned specifically as a junior high school (as previously they had been located in modified elementary facilities). The school was named for Herman Ridder, a prominent journalist, German-language publisher and philanthropist, who had passed away in 1915.
Among its notable alumni were jazz saxophonist Stan Getz and actors Hal Linden and Al Pacino. I started the walk where I did in part so I could see this building. I’ve biked and taken the subway past it numerous times and have always marveled at it.
Herman Ridder Junior High School, and East 173 Street looking downhill.
From there I walked east on East 173 Street to Sheridan Boulevard, the last few blocks being steep enough to require walking with care. Sheridan Boulevard is the re-thinking of one of the great mistakes of highway building, the Sheridan Expressway. The Sheridan ran from a partial interchange with the Cross Bronx Expressway (Interstate 95) to a partial interchange with the Bruckner Expressway (Interstate 278), well short of its intended terminus, the Hunts Point Terminal Market, whence food wholesalers distribute much of New York City’s perishable foods. Never heavily trafficked, it succeeded only in keeping the adjacent communities from the Bronx River. Once the river and its shoreline were cleaned up, there was an undeniable need to allow residents access to the Bronx River Greenway and the parks along it (see my posts “Lower Bronx River Greenway” and “Back to the Lower Bronx River” on the Other Walks Around Town page). The Sheridan Expressway had to go. Its replacement in 2019 by a boulevard was the result of many years of activism and planning.
At the bottom of East 173 Street I crossed Sheridan Boulevard and entered Starlight Park, named for the long-gone Starlight Pool, Part of the park pathway was covered with black ice; fortunately, there was just enough of the pathway that was in the sun and clear of ice for me to proceed safely. I continued to the ramp up to the East 174 Street Bridge that crosses over West Farms Road, Sheridan Boulevard, Starlight Park, the Bronx River, and Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.
View of Starlight Park, looking south from the East 174 Street Bridge.
From the bridge are two sets of stairs down to West Farms Road, one on the north side and one on the south side. These are metal stairways, 40 steps each, with handrails that are uncomfortably low. I walked down the south stairway, where a lot of trash had accumulated on the landing. I walked up the north stairs. where someone had left what looked like shrimp fried rice. I’ve no doubt the local rodents will make quick work of that. The upper flight of steps was slippery with ice, and even using the handrail I had to proceed slowly and carefully. These stairs do get used but frankly their condition is a disgrace.
At the bottom of the stairs at the East 174 Street Bridge, and looking down the north stairs from the top, toward icy stair treads and a feast for the critters.
The Boone Slope stairs.
I then walked a short distance west to Boone Avenue and then north. There isn’t much happening on Boone Avenue, which perhaps is just as well. I saw a few abandoned cars and not much else. My objective was the Boone Avenue stairs, called the Boone Slope, a set of 29 steps hugging the Cross Bronx Expressway, leading down to West Farms Road. These stairs have no handrails, and starting down I had to hold on to the chain link fence on the right. Once the retaining wall on the right was at a height that I could hold on to, there was a snow bank I had to clear. I must have been quite a sight going down to the landing, staying just clear of the snow bank while holding on to the wall. Having long arms is useful. The bottom 14 steps were much easier to negotiate.
After all that, and given the cold, I walked to the elevated West Farms Square subway station, several stories above the street, and made my way to lunch.
I had not walked around the Clermont neighborhood, the first part of the walk, since a few of us from Brooklyn went up there on a similarly cold day in January 2012 to look at the city’s first Neighborhood Slow Zone, with various street safety treatments and a 20 mph (32 km/h) speed limit. Despite the cold and windy day I’m glad I did. Tackling the stair streets wasn’t as much a physical challenge as a mental one, as I had to give my undivided attention to proceeding carefully. And there’s a lot of work going on in the parks along the Bronx River, so I’ll be back soon.
STAIR COUNT: 40 up, 69 down, total 109.