Route of today’s trip. Map courtesy Google Maps.
WHERE: Manhattan College Steps (West 238 Street), and Bailey Avenue to Orloff Avenue, Bronx
SUBWAY AT START/FINISH: 238 Street (1)
DISTANCE: 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometers)
Photographs by Michael Cairl
My boss Alex studied engineering as an undergraduate at Manhattan College in the Bronx, and told me about the Manhattan College Steps, a segment of West 238 Street between Irwin Avenue and Waldo Avenue. He and many other Jaspers have climbed those steps regularly, and I didn’t know about them previously. So I had to find out for myself. Thank you, Alex; it was well worth the long subway ride on a cold January day.
I started out at the elevated subway station at West 238 Street and Broadway and walked west toward the Manhattan College Steps. Most of the stairway had scaffolding overhead, to which a handrail had been fixed at a more comfortable height than the permanent handrail. The stairway has 120 steps: 4 flights of 16 steps followed by 4 flights of 14 steps. It was a good, invigorating climb. From there I walked north on Waldo Avenue and downhill on Manhattan College Parkway past the campus and New York City Transit’s 240 Street subway yard to Broadway.
First row, left to right: Views of the Manhattan College Steps, from the bottom and from the top.
Second row, left to right: Charming old house near the top of the steps whose garage seems to have been blasted from this upthrust of the Earth’s crust, and a view of Gaelic Park (a hurling field) and the subway yard.
Vertical on today’s walk, courtesy Google Maps.
From there I cut through Van Cortlandt Park, going underneath the trestle of what was once the Putnam Division of the New York Central Railroad. Trains on the “Put” never made it to Manhattan beyond 155 Street, and that was cut back to a terminal on Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx once Ninth Avenue elevated trains started using the bridge across the Harlem River formerly used by the “Put.” Passenger service ended in 1958. The right-of-way is a continuous bike and pedestrian path all the way to Brewster, New York, about 46 miles (74 kilometers) and paved from the New York City line north. In Van Cortlandt Park the path bisects the Van Cortlandt golf course, I believe the oldest public golf course in the United States. I’ve biked the entire trail once, on Labor Day 2010. From Elmsford to Baldwins Place, about 25 miles (40 kilometers), the route is generally a gentle uphill. The ride on the long bridge over the Croton Reservoir is exhilarating and is itself worth the trip.
Left to right: Signs pointing toward the Putnam Trail, and the southern end of the Putnam Trail on the trestle. Barely visible through the trees to the left of the trestle are the remains of the platform shelter of the Putnam Division’s Van Cortlandt Park station.
Back to today’s walk, though. After exiting the park I walked a short distance south on Bailey Avenue to the stairway up to Orloff Avenue. This stairway, 112 steps, is in very good condition and I felt good and strong climbing it. From there I walked along Orloff Avenue and carefully downhill on West 238 Street due to an uneven sidewalk, back toward the subway.
There are two more stair streets that I know of in this part of the Bronx, on Van Cortlandt Park South and West 238 Street, that I’ll tackle another day, perhaps a bit warmer for sitting outside at the Bronx Ale House afterwards. It’s fun and good therapy to get out of my zone and tackle these off-the-beaten-path wonders of this great city.
Left to right: Views of the Bailey-Orloff steps, from the bottom and from the top.