Hike #1282; Bayonne/Staten Island/Manhattan

Hike #1282; Bayonne/Staten Island/Manhattan

12/22/19 Bayonne/Staten Island/Manhattan with Dan Lurie, Jennifer Berndt, John DiFiore, Marcel DiFiore, Jennifer Tull, Ken Zaruni, Dan Asnis, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Daniel Trump, Anne M, Michael Krejsa, James Quinn, Robert Avery, Tom Vorrius, Jim “Uncle Soup” Campbell, Stephen Argentina, Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), Steve Sanbeg, Justin Gurbisz, Alyssa Lidman, Cory Salvesen, Linda Salvesen, John Pershouse, Kirk Rohn, Alex Gisser, Jack Lowry, Diane Reider, Martyn (Sy P. Deunom), Sarah Jones, Beesan, Serious Sean Dougherty, Cindy Browning, Red Sean Reardon, Ronnie DiVirgilio, Ellie Zabeth, Peter Fleszar, Kenneth Lidman, Sarah Hare, Kathryn Cataldo, Kevin Kowalick, and Tianxi?

The group at Silver Lake Park

It was time once again for our Holiday New York City Hike.
Hikes like this I sometimes dread because it kind of means fitting into a box or something. It’s an obligatory thing that has to be done on a certain weekend or whatever.

Jersey City Light Rail!

I always dislike the sort of obligatory thing. I have all of these countless series I’m working on that no one but me get nearly as excited for, and then it sometimes feels like doing the tradition stuff is throwing a wrench into it.
This time was better though, because we put together some stuff I’d been wanting to do for a long while, and it kept it more in the same vein as what we had done last year.
Last year’s hike really felt more like a HIKE that many of the previous holiday hikes.

Hiking through Bayonne!

I decided I wanted to do this hike in a different area, but with the same sort of feel.
The original plan was to start the hike in Elizabeth NJ, do some of the pretty Elizabeth River Greenway, and then get on the new Goethels Bridge, which only recently opened into Staten Island. The walkway was scheduled to be open in time for the hike when scheduled.
I figured it would be great to start out in Jersey, then cross the Arthur Kill, and continue through some of the great Staten Island Parks, as the island is technically part of New York City anyway.

Game of Thrones Author's school

Unfortunately, it became apparent a couple of months ago that the new Goethels Bridge walkway would not be open in time for the hike. I would have to come up with something else for the hike.
Fortunately, I was able to keep the same feel and much of the same hike by going a different way, to the new Bayonne Bridge walkway.
I had walked across the Bayonne Bridge on hikes before, including one past Holiday Hike several years ago, but the bridge would be totally different this time than the previous ones since it’s been raised for the passage of larger “Panamax Ships”.

Old Bra factory from the twenties

I figured out a route that would touch components of previous hikes on Staten Island, but also hit many other places I’d never been.
We would pass through these areas, and then make our way to the free Staten Island Ferry to cross into Manhattan to close out the hike.
Doing it this way I figured would make it much easier to meet, and much easier to get started. Meeting in NY Penn Station is always a mess, with everyone waiting till last minute to get to the restroom or whatever.

Bayonne Bridge at Collins Park

I made the meeting point for this one the Liberty Park Light Rail Station, because it’s free and huge. It would be perfect to get started from. We could take the Hudson Bergen Light Rail south to the Bayonne Station, and then go to the bridge from there.
I made one boo boo on this one however: I neglected to change the meeting time that I had originally planned based on train schedules in Elizabeth. Instead, I kept the meet time as 9:30. I should have made it 8:30 or 9. That would have given us a bit more time, but it worked out alright in the end anyway.

In Collins Park

We met up at the station, and I arrived with less than fifteen minutes before the train would arrive. I put a notice up on the meetup and facebook groups for everyone to get tickets when we get there so that we’ll catch the train to the south. It was to leave at 9:42.
A lot of people are used to me waiting some long amount of time to get started, but this time we absolutely had to be ready on time. Some people were already running late when we headed over to the ticket kiosks.

Bayonne Bridge

It didn’t take too long at all after buying the tickets for the train to show up.
It was manned; there was a guy in the front of it sort of driving, but no other presence. They didn’t even check our tickets when we got on board.
I almost didn’t get in, because the doors were closing on us. Someone put their hand in in order to stop it and we got on, but the group behind us missed the train! Either it’s automatic and trying to stay on schedule over all else, or the engineer was a total jerk and didn’t want anyone else to be able to get on.

Bayonne Bridge

The train had very wide windows, and moved very fast. The others told me they were going to try to get the next train which was something like fifteen minutes behind. It didn’t matter too much; we could go down to the businesses in Bayonne and use restrooms to save a little time.
While on the train, the first customary song of the day played by Jack on his carbon fiber guitar was the Jose Feliciano classic “Feliz Navidad”. He then went into John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas (War Is Over)”.

Bayonne Bridge

It didn’t take too long for the train to arrive. We got off the platform and went down the steps to street level where there was a Dunkin Donuts just to the west. We had made this same stop the last time I did a holiday hike across the Bayonne Bridge.
We basically took over the entire place. Once inside, any regular customer who came in had really big eyes and looked kind of shocked. The line to both the men’s and women’s restrooms were basically taken over by women using both of them, and lined up well out into the store. We waited here until the train with the next group arrived.

In Collins Park

We exited the store, and then all of us headed to Avenue C to pass beneath the light rail tracks.
We of course could have gone directly to the Bayonne Bridge, because the ramp to get on it is very close to there, but I wanted to get down to the waterfront at Dennis P. Collins Park to have a look at the bridge from afar first. I had several photos I had taken of the bridge down there which I wanted to do then and now shots for, and it’s also just a really cool park to view the bridge at different angles from. It ended up being a really great way to start the hike along the waterfront of the Kill Van Kull.

Bayonne Bridge before raising, on my hike in 2009

From Avenue C, we turned left on Seventh Street, which soon became Silver Street and turned to the southeast a bit. We then turned right on Orient Street to Dodge Street.

Bayonne Bridge 2019

Once at the corner of Dodge and Orient, there was a war memorial in a little park. We paused here to let everyone catch up that had run a bit behind, and I went over our plans.

Bayonne Bridge

Reportedly, an old school right across from the statue was the one the author of “Game of Thrones” went to.
Nobody was really paying attention, so I didn’t waste my breath much more, and we walked to 5th Street, went left briefly, and then turned right onto Lexington Ave.
We walked down the street a little bit, and then passed a handsome old building that read “Maiden Form Brassiere” on a sign above the door. At the moment I found a juvenile entertainment in there being a bra factory there, but it turns out it’s actually quite an historic site.

Bayonne Bridge

Ida Rosenthal and Enid Bissett started the business that became Maidenform in the 1920s. They started off in New York City, and then moved to Bayonne.

Playin

The historic factory building on Lexington was converted more recently into loft style apartments.
We continued down the street, and at the end we came to the walkway along the Kill Van Kull in the Dennis P. Collins Park. The first section has a nice little pavilion type of thing and a wooden dock section called Brady’s Dock.
We turned right, and could see the Bayonne Bridge plainly. It looks quite a bit different with the road deck being so much higher than it used to be. The main arch span is now not nearly as revealed at the top of the deck as it was.

Fun time

The Bayonne Bridge opened up in November of 1931, with a giant 266 foot single span arch souring above the Kill Van Kull, and span of 1,675 feet long without intermediate piers. Master bridge builder Othmarr Ammann and architect Cass Gilbert rejected the more conventional cantilever and suspension designs as costly and impractical. The arch was chosen for it’s strenth, because the city once planned for heavier duty rapid transit to use the bridge, but that never came to fruition and it remained road.

The bridge in 2009

Sections with piers lifted the highway to the level of the bridge at either end, for a sum of 5,780 feet total.
Cost of bridge construction amazingly came to three million dollars less than originally proposed, and it opened ahead of schedule in 1931 (we’ll never see anything like that today!).
It was decided to raise the bridge because the new ships had trouble getting beneath it, and would have to wait until low tide if they couldn’t bring their masts down. Rather than lose important port business, it was decided that the bridge should be raised. Work on this began some time around 2013, and the new highway decking was completed in 2017.
The original pedestrian walkway across the bridge was on the west side, but the new one, which only just opened in 2019, was built along the east side, which allowed for a better view toward the city and the Hudson River to the east.

Bayonne Bridge now...

We started walking through the Collins Park to the west, and I watched closely for how I could set up now versions of my old photos mostly from 2009. I think a few of them came out pretty good.
We stopped by a little playground that had a couple of those plastic merry go round things, and most of the group started playing around on them.
Eventually, we were nearly beneath the bridge. From there, we turned to the right, and then started following John F. Kennedy Blvd. north. We wandered through to the entrance to the bridge.

View from the bridge to Bayonne

I did not yet realize that the pedestrian route was shifted from west to east side of the bridge, and I was trying to find comparison photos based on older ones I had taken. I realized before reaching the other side that the curve of the bridge was in the wrong direction.
The new walkway was far wider than the original one was. The original was pretty narrow, and the guide rails on the edge were only about waist high. These new ones were far over our heads, wide enough that we could barely get photos through them, but still a bit too far together to get very impressive shots.

As we crested the new height of the bridge, there was a great view back in the direction we had come of the Newark Bay, where the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers come together.
It looked like an army of us crossing over. I think there were about 42 of us at this point.
The view of the Kill Van Kull was pretty awesome.
The new walkway came out to Tantor Place on the Staten Island side. I looked back and saw that Dan was still out on the bridge, and I thought he was last.

The original walkway from one of my previous hikes

It turns out several others had still been out there taking photos and such, and I didn’t realize it. It’s just so hard to keep track of everyone on these hikes.

Weird ass sign

There was a sign near here unlike anything I’d ever seen before. It looked like people crossing the crosswalk doing a Saturday Night Fever stance. Someone made jokes that they hope it’s not a sign of the return of Fascism, and went on “We are almost back to the twenties...”

New bridge walkway

We headed down Tantor Street to Dixon Ave, but I should have cut over earlier through a school yard to eliminate some road walking. I’ll certainly do a variation of this route again, so I’ll get another chance.
We followed Dixon out to Port Richmond Ave, turned right briefly, then left on Hagaman Place. While we were walking down this road, a guy with a big white beard who appeared to look much like Santa, with some lovely Christmas decorations through his yard, asked what was going on, as this huge entourage followed me. I said “Just a hike!” he smiled and looked somewhat surprised. We wished him a merry Christmas and continued.

The group on the bridge

We headed across Decker Ave and into the back of the stores where there was trash literally everywhere. Someone asked what mess I was leading them all into.

The Kill Van Kull

We turned left in the back of the lot, and then followed along the backs of the stores. There were dumpsters everywhere that we had to resist temptation not to check.
We came out to Barrett Avenue, and turned to the right, then reached what appeared to be a town center. The area, as per maps, is called Westerleigh, but the area we had just been in was called Elm Park. I’m not sure what this one was for sure. I paused the group when we got to the intersection with Forest Ave.

Bridge view and Manhattan Skyline

I had talked on the phone with Ken, and he was coming to meet up with us at this town center. I told everyone else we would take a fifteen minute break and meet back up.

On the bridge

I kind of figured it would take much longer than that, but I didn’t expect that it would take over a half an hour.
Everyone sort of split up and went their own way. There was a KFC down the road, and there was some sort of place Lerch was texting me photos of that had tacos, which of course looked enticing.
I have been having so many stomach problems as a result of the Doxycycline, or the Lyme disease, or both, that I haven’t been able to always handle food as well, and this was one of those less than great times for it.

The bridge walkway

I decided to just go right into the establishment directly behind me on the corner for simplicity.
It wasn’t anything I was expecting to want something from, the Tropical Smoothie Cafe, but then I saw that they had quasadillas and I went for it anyway.
I was glad I did, because I did feel a little better with something in my stomach. It actually had a little kick to it as well.
Many of us hung out in the place until everyone started to show up a bit more. There were still several missing from the KFC and the Taco Place, and someone told me several were going to catch up later.

The Kill Van Kull view

It was pretty early it seemed to be missing people from the group already, but it was after all about noon. The late meeting time really changed things up a bit.

On the bridge

I couldn’t keep waiting for everyone else to come out, so I decided to just start walking and figured everyone would find us.
Ken and Sarah caught back up, and Stephen got a ride across the bridge from earlier.
We turned right on Forest Ave only briefly, and people were coming out of KFC to walk with us. We turned right on Eldridge Ave heading southeast.
This road led directly in to the paved trail to Northleigh Park. We continued straight and paused for others to catch up when we got to the intersection of paths near the middle.

Staten Island side of the bridge

When most everyone was caught up, we turned to the left onto the path that comes out at the corner of Burnside Ave and Shaw Place. We turned right on Burnside Ave, crossed over Jewett Ave, and then entered an area of apartment parking. We turned to the left through the lot after Jewett, came out to Ravenhurst Ave, and then turned right to go up hill a bit.
It was a pretty road with a sidewalk lined with trees.
We continued on Ravenhurst to the intersection with Manor Road. We turned right briefly, then left onto Alpine Court. This took us down hill to Brookside Avenue.

Northleigh Park

The intersection with Brookside was where we got on a paved trail that led down into Clove Lakes Park, which is part of the Staten Island Greenbelt System.
Staten Island has a lot of really great history, which is one of the reasons I loved it right from the start.
The island was named Staten Eyelandt by the Dutch, which literally means “States Island”.
It is also Richmond County, in addition to being one of the five boroughs of New York (and was “Richmond Borough” until 1975). It’s been part of the “City of Greater New York” since 1898.

We paused so I could go over some of the history at the entrance to Clove Lakes Park, and Red Sean shared some Red Label, which beautifully matched his beard.
I focused my history on the interesting background to the Staten Island Greenbelt itself.
The proposal for a park on Staten Island has gone back for many years, going back to the Olmsteads in the 1870s who first wanted to create a park stretching to the north from the Great Kills.

Clove Lakes Park, Brooks Lake

Later, Staten Island Naturalist William T. Davis and Historic Charles Leng coauthored a history book and stated “The crowning glory of Staten Island’s topography and scenery is the forest that springs from its rich, well-watered soil … Irregularity of contour and excessive wetness have saved such places from village development; and there is hope that some at least may ultimately become parklands, for which purpose they are eminently suited.” No proposed park came to be around this time,

Jen in a log

By the 1960s, Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Chairman Robert Moses proposed the Richmond Parkway, which would be a superhighway to connect New Jersey across Staten Island to the Verrazanno Narrows Bridge. A green swath of land connecting across the island from adjacent to Clove Lakes down to the Great Kills Park was to be a superhighway, but opposition to it started almost immediately.
Construction did begin on the highway in 1965, which resulted in the creation of some overpasses and a sort of cloverleaf. Fighting continued and eventually the work was halted. The disused bridges over the existing highway were the route of the greenbelt trail for many years until they were removed I think in 2015 (we hiked them a couple of times before that).
When New York City finally recognized the park in the 1980s, it became the second largest contiguous park in New York City, behind only Pelham Bay Park.

In Clove Lakes Park

The Staten Island Greenbelt has several branches rather than one main trail. The blue branch makes its way to the north end of Clove Lakes Park and continues south in a circuitous route. The white branch makes its way from the northwest, and then continues to Great Kills Park, and the yellow starts in the northeast and makes it’s way southwest. I’ve hiked almost the entire thing, save for a few spurs and such. One of these days I’ll get back there to finish more of it I suppose. This time, we would only be on the blue trail for a little while, as my plan was to continue to the northeast to the ferry.

In Clove Lakes Park

I got a text from Ken Zaruni, who was planning to meet up with us somewhere in this area as well. He and his family came to Manhattan, and he headed to the ferry, crossed, and was on an intercept course.
Pete Fleszar, who lives way out in PA, also planned to meet up with us, but he was coming by way of Bayonne and trying to make an intercept course as well.
We checked out a giant dead Beech tree along the way in Clove Lakes Park, which was hollowed out in the middle.

Clove Lakes Park, Martling Lake

Jen climbed into the stump, and I climbed into the main tree to get some silly photos before moving on down the trail. Singing and merriment continued the entire time.

Clove Lakes Park

The blue trail of the Staten Island Greenbelt turned up hill to the right at some point on a natural surface, while a paved trail continued on the west side of the Clove Lakes. We remained on that route at this point.
We continued along between different lakes, and there handsome stone bridges crossing the brook between them. The furthest north lake is Brooks Lake, followed by Martling Lake, and finally Clove Lake is the last one we came upon near the southern end of the park.

Bridge in Clove Lakes Park

Lerch and company caught up with us walking from the other direction in the park. He said I was too predictable when he walked up on us!
We continued to the south, and Ken was almost to Clove Lakes having powered fast down Victory Blvd.
We passed by the skating rink, then turned left to continue through the park parallel with Victory Blvd. We went up a set of steps that took us from there up to Clove Road. I could see Ken walking as we approached.

Clove Lake

We turned right on Clove Road to reach Victory Blvd, and then continued to the left on Victory heading slightly up hill. Part of my plan was possibly to use the cemetery.

Clove Lakes Park

The Woodland Cemetery, Silver Lake Cemetery, and Silver Mount Cemetery appear to be contiguous, but I didn’t see a common way between all of them, nor did I see an entrance. I figure I could probably use this as part of a future hike as well one day.
We simply followed Victory Blvd to the northeast for a bit, and then skirted the golf course on the left side. Just beyond, we came to the entrance to Silver Lake Park. I had used this park once before as part of a hike, but never as part of the Holiday Hike.

The group at Silver Lake Park

We took a path that took us down to the shore of the lake where I wanted to get my group shot, but then more people were missing again.

Silver Lake Park

Ken, Sarah, Kat, and Kevin all cut out early to take a bus to the ferry. I don’t know if they figured we would be there shortly and they were taking a shortcut, but my planned route from here was the best part of the hike.
We had to keep moving on, and so we turned along the shore and continued. A long set of steps took us up hill to another level, and we came to the corner of Forest Avenue and Haven Esplanade where we crossed.

At Silver Lake Park

Haven Esplanade is just a little road at first, but then splits in two after a block, where a park of the same name continues in a swath to the north. We walked up the center of this.
A steep slope took us down through the lawn in the middle to Castleton Ave. At this point, Red Sean and Ronnie decided to cut out and try to head to Manhattan where they were going to try to get to some sort of exhibition at one of the art museums.

Haven Esplanade

I never recommend trying to do more than one thing in a day we have a hike. It’s just too unpredictable. I don’t know if they ever made it to the exhibition, but they had very limited time to do it. If they went, I doubt they’d even get to see more than an hour of it.
Still, we turned right on Castleton Ave, then left on Glen Ave to Brighton Ave.
We turned left on Brighton, and we passed the southwest entrance to Jones Woods Park.

Forever Wild at Goodhue Park

We used Jones Woods Park the last time I was out on Staten Island, and connected to Silver Lake Park. This time, I had an alternate plan to head to the west through more parks.

Found an old grill

My first plan for this section was to head to a park land just to the west, Goodhue Park. This is a fifteen acre tract that was once part of the Children’s Aid Society. After turning left on Brighton, we turned right on Lafayette Ave where there were fenced in ball fields. It didn’t look like we were going to be able to get in to the park at first, but then after a “Forever Wild” sign, we found a hole in the fence. We all walked in and followed a paved path from the closed parking area and toward the wooded track to the west.

Goodhue Park

We passed into the woods, and descended a bit toward the edge of a picturesque little pond. Before we even got there, Lerch I think it was said that he thought he heard bagpipes. I didn’t think anything of it, and then I started hearing it too.
There was, sure enough, a guy playing bagpipes along the shore of the pond below!
Some of the group went up and put money in his container for them as we walked by. He stopped as if to tell us it wasn’t necessary. I think he did actually.

Bag piper!

He said to me as we went by “This is the only place I can practice!”
I think he appreciated the positive criticism either way. We continued to the left of the pond.

Goodhue Park

The paved path gave way to a narrower natural surface path along the shore of the pond, which was quite nice. A wider one at the end went up hill to the left.

Pond in Goodhue Park

We continued ahead along a narrower trail with red blazes among other things I can’t remember, further into the woods. Just ahead, we came upon a very interesting sort of outdoor ampitheater, which probably was part of the youth operation previously.
There was a stone sort of stage area, and then tons of large stump type of things used for seating. This was an excellent opportunity for another group shot.

Weird amphitheater

More trails weaved around the property from this area. We followed the more narrow foot path which took us from this opening along a creek that originated at the pond.

Foot Bridge in Goodhue Park

A foot bridge took us across the creek, and past some sort of ruins. I noticed the wreckage of an old dam down below us to the right as we walked on through.
The landscape opened up, and we soon entered Allison Pond Park.
We emerged from the woods, and then went around the outside of the picturesque pond to the right. This took us out to Prospect Ave. We turned left briefly, and then right onto Brantwood Ave to the north up hill.

The group in Goodhue Park

We crossed Henderson Ave, and then continued ahead on College Row into Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden property.

Ruins in Goodhue Park

There were a lot of people walking around on this main road, which was closed off to traffic.
We continued on this only a little bit, and then turned to the left on a wide but unpaved trail that switchbacked down hill.
We came to a little fountain area with a path around it, and ice inside. Sarah got in it and started stomping around to see if she could get the ice to break.
We then continued on along the path which went to the west side of the property, and the path entered woods alongside the stream that flowed out of the previous parks. We continued in woods for a little bit with some lovely little marsh land views, and then turned to the right to make our way back into the wider open area.
I had thought we might be able to continue to the north into ball fields accessible from Snug Harbor Road to the north, but there was literally no way through. We continued to the east to a trail that weaved back and forth back up hill toward Cottage Row.

Allison Pond Park

There was some kind of event going on, because there were tents and such set up to the right of us over a wall. We soon came to an area with historic buildings of similar construction.

Allison Pond Park

The Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden actually first started in 1833 as the Sailors’ Snug Harbor, the first retirement community intended for merchant seamen.
The roots of Snug Harbor date back even further to Revolutionary War Veteran and ship master Captain Robert Richard Randall, who left his country estate in Manhattan, which is now bordered by Broadway and Fifth Avenue, for use as an institution to care for the “aged, decrepit, and worn out”

Sailors Snug Harbor

The first meeting to develop this institution took place in 1806, with Governor DeWitt Clinton as President of the new corporation.

Snug Harbor trail

Several people came forward to contest the will of Randall.
By the time the legal issues had been worked out, the area around the Randall Estate had been hugely developed.
The Snug Harbor Trustees decided to maximize the profit of this land by changing the location to another piece of land bequeathed from Randall: a 130 acre site on the north side of Staten Island on the Kill Van Kull, and construction began on the site beginning with the Greek Revival temple building on the New Brighton waterfront.

Snug Harbor historic post card

By the late 1800s, the peak population at Snug Harbor was about 1,000 people, and the governor at one time was none other than the brother of the author of Moby Dick.

Snug Harbor

By the mid 1900s, the start of Social Security and better benefits made the need for a special institution for retired seamen less necessary. Some buildings were demolished after falling into disrepair.
By the 1960s, the trustees proposed redeveloping Sailors’ Snug Harbor into a high rise building site, but the city stepped in and had it registered as a National Historic Landmark. Fortunately, it was saved by 1965, and in the 1970s the land was purchased by the City of New York.

Snug Harbor gate house

The Snug Harbor trustees moved from the site to Sea Level North Carolina, and the Snug Harbor Cultural Center opened to public in 1976.

Snug Harbor

The cultural center merged with the Botanical Garden in 2008.
Today, the eighty three acre site consists of 26 Greek Revival, Beaux Arts, Italianate, and Victorian Style buildings.
We passed by several of the buildings on the left, and then passed out of Snug Harbor next to a handsome old gate house.
We turned right on Snug Harbor Road, and soon headed out to Richmond Terrace. We crossed here, and there was a path heading down toward the edge of the Kill Van Kull to the north.

In Snug Harbor

The paved trail goes down hill and then turns right to follow the shore to the east. Immediately, we could see the old railroad rails coming through the pavement.

In Snug Harbor

We had walked this section before on a holiday NY City hike about seven or eight years ago. That was the other one where we crossed the Bayonne Bridge for it.
We stopped for a break to look around at this point.
There was a large dock sitting of at a weird angle, leaning off into the Kill Van Kull to the left of the entrance.
We headed over to that. At first, a lot of the group remained back and waited rather than join in on the fun. Lerch went over to the dock before anyone else and others joined.

Tilted rails

I saw Justin get on the thing too, and I couldn’t resist having a closer look myself, so I went over and climbed up onto the thing as well.

The group on the tracks.

The railroad was formerly the North Shore Branch of the Staten Island Railroad, which was built in 1886 and abandoned around 1989.
Rail loads originally came to Staten Island by way of ferries that were purchased by the railroad, but the North Shore branch eventually was connected to the main land by way of a bridge that connects over to New Jersey. The first bit of Staten Island Railroad started out around 1851, and I believe it was the first railroad financed by Cornelius Vanderbilt.

On the Kill Van Kull

The North Shore Branch connected the bridge into New Jersey to Port Richmond where the Staten Island Ferry is today.
Much of the line was supported by a ballast filled wooden trestle on the waterfront, which has since been compromised by the waters of the Kill Van Kull, and so we see rails descending into the water.
Many of us climbed up onto the dock thing. I hung out up there with Lerch and Justin, and Uncle Soup and Sarah came up. When others started coming up to get on it, I headed over to check out the old rails.

Along the Kill Van Kull

The tide was just right to be able to see more of the tracks going off into the water.
We checked it all out and then headed back up to the intact but grown over tracks, and then headed over to where the rest of the group was waiting for us ahead.
Surprisingly, there are some proposals to reactivate this rail line for passenger service, but I don’t see that happening so close to the Kill Van Kull at the mercy of the tidal straight. A bit of the western end of it is still in use today.

Along Kill Van Kull

We continued along the waterfront from this point on the paved trail that followed beside the abandoned tracks. There was another dock to the left we checked out, which was apparently reserved only for scientific experiments according to the stuff we read when we got on it.
There was a big stone wall and steps reading “Sailors’ Snug Harbor” on it that led back up to Richmond Terrace.

Washed out railroad

I went up to the road with most of the group, but Lerch and Tom and I forget who else, probably Justin, stayed below to follow along the shore on the tracks.

Kill Van Kull

I watched them from above on the road and wished that I had stayed down to walk the tracks, so I climbed down at the first convenient spot, where there was a large elaborate homeless shelter built right in the middle of the tracks.
I got to the bottom and began following the tracks to the east a bit more. It wouldn’t take me very far, because there was some sort of facility with a giant heap of salt or something similar built right on top of where the grade was. I’d have to climb back up to the road again.

Dock thingy

Once we were all back up, we continued along Richmond Terrace above the industries for a bit. We could see where the railroad used to go pretty easily to the left.
We kept on walking, and reached the intersection with Jersey Street. We could turn down hill to the left there, and then turn right on Bank Street, which pretty much follows where the railroad used to go to the east.

The tracks

Immediately upon turning, there was some sort of abandoned building to the right.
Of course, some of us just had to get inside of it. I chose not to get my clothes too dirty this time, but Justin and Lerch were in there. Lerch just crawled right into the thing and didn’t stop at that. Next thing you know, he was climbin out through the roof of it.
This building was odd in that it was not just abandoned, it was completely filled in with barely any room to walk, with just random debris. It didn’t appear to be garbage or anything, just debris.
The group was getting pretty segmented at this point. Some of them were really far ahead, and before we got to the next park I was planning to use, the North Shore Waterfront Esplanade Park, they came walking back toward us. They told us that the guard guy ahead wouldn’t let us through. This seemed weird, because there is a public park back there.

Track washout

Apparently, someone in the group talked to a cop just up ahead, and he said that it was weird, because even he thought you could go through there to the park.

Goofing off on docks

There was a very steep wall to the right of us by this point that barred us from getting back to Richmond Terrace. There was a big pile of dirt, and then a huge dip beyond where we could not even get close to reaching the road level.
We were not to be deterred by this, apparently, as Lerch spotted an upside down waste basket to the right, at a point where it was about as close as we could get to the where where it can be reached. It was just past a very deep cut out in the earth along the road.

Rails

Lerch got on the can, reached up and grabbed rails along the road above, then pushed off of the wall with his knees to scale the steep slope of the wall. I decided I was following.

Along the Kill Van Kull

I was about to pull myself up, but then others started following me as well. Instead, I helped boost people up to the top for a bit.
This was a precarious thing, because once you were up to the top, if you managed to get to the top, there was a tall fence to pull yourself over with very sharp prongs on them. If you didn’t sodomize yourself on it, you might very well still rip your pants or something. Taller people definitely have it easier here.

Tracks

I continued to help others get up until Dan Trump showed up, and he’s pretty tall, so he was helping people up easily. I was no longer needed for the task, so I pulled myself up to the top and over the rail. I managed to not rip any clothing more than they were at the start of the hike. Fortunately, it’s a spot where there is a break between fence post bits, where a non-pronged joint makes for adequate crossing.
When Dan helped boost the last one up, he made it up to the top and over the fence with ease. Everyone was completely over the fence work and waiting for the others to go back and make their way back to us up top.
When everyone had arrived, we continued along Richmond Terrace to the east. I was annoyed, because in the past, we were able to remain along the waterfront and it seemed like they were trying to bar us from a completely public area. Even a cop questioned it.

Track washout

Justin and I saw there was a security guard car to the left of us, and the guy left it to run across to the right side of the street into a mini mart.

Rails

We briefly fantasized about stealing the jerk wad’s car, but chose not to do so.
As we walked, I spotted a bridge across an opening that led into the parking garage. There were no signs saying to stay out. I figured this would be our chance to get to the ground level and out to the trail on the north side, so I led everyone through.
Just as we were walking through the length of the garage, a car was approaching us fast and blinking its lights at us.
The security guard that the others had seen before got out of it very frantically yelling that we were not allowed to be there.
I argued with him that we were only trying to get to the park, and he wouldn’t listen to anything.
At this point, I was just angry with the guy’s jack ass behavior. I was ready to go at it with him. I pulled my phone out and tried to put it in his face to show him what it said.

Boat goes by

I said he should know what it says, because regardless, other people will make the same “mistake” because of what’s shown. The guy said he was going to call the cops, and I told him to go ahead and call them, because the cop someone in our group saw told us he thought we were allowed to go through there. I knew that cop would be the first likely to respond so I actually wanted him to come. New York cops are always pretty friendly.

Fun

The guy got even more pissed off when he said something about putting me in hand cuffs and I laughed at him and said “go ahead”! Then he pulled out a radio and called for backup.

Tracks

Justin seemed to move about as if he were completely unaware of this security guard’s near melt down. He was walking ahead of me, and then when the guy started yelling, casually walked around keeping a sort of wide berth around the guard behind him, which probably made him even more uncomfortable.
He looked over to him and was yelling “SIR. SIR.”
The pinnacle of funny was when the guy moved back away from me and approached Justin as if to usher him out of the building, and Justin let out a high pitched shriek like some unknown endangered bird.

Boat goin by

I couldn’t help but laugh immediately at the ridiculousness of this incident, but I continued to try to plead with the guy as he just kept yelling at us to get out.
He kept repeating that we were trespassing, to which I said over and over “There were no signs. I didn’t see any signs”.
The guy knew I was right, and he just kept trying to prove his point. He yelled about the company name that owns the parking garage, and that if you look up the company on the sign, that the rules are right there, which I told him was stupid.

Rails

The guy basically pushed me out the door and back across the bridge, and I hollered back at him the entire time while we were going, still trying to show him my phone.

Rails

Looking into it later, we did have the right to use the park at the end, and the company had no right to turn us away from it whatsoever. However, just ahead of this, the greenway I had intended to use was blocked off for construction to just beyond the Staten Island 911 Memorial, so even if we walked into it a short distance, we would still have been forced to turn back, so it worked out anyway.
Still, I would not have traded the experience of seeing Justin scream in a hard-ass guard’s face for anything. That man was both frightened and disturbed by the experience.

Tracks

We continued past the garage area, and then turned down hill to the left to reach the 911 memorial just as it was starting to get dark.
This was a beautiful time to be on the waterfront.
We had a pleasant walk along the lovely, well lit waterfront from here past a ball field area to the terminal of the Staten Island Ferry.
Somehow, more of us got separated here, and some of the group missed the ferry boat we had gotten on because they went to get food or something.

911 Memorial

The Staten Island Ferry is one of the last remaining vestiges of a ferry system that predated any bridges between the islands of the greater Hudson Bay.

Snug Harbor steps

This particular ferry started in 1817 when the Richmond Turnpike company started a steam ferry business from the site to Manhattan.
Cornelius Vanderbilt bouht the ferry in 1838, and then the railroad companies passed it around starting in the 1860s with Staten Island Railroad.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad took it over from them in 1884.
The City of New York took it over in 1905 and has managed it ever since. All of the other former ferries were pretty much finished by the 1960s, but the popularity of the route to Manhattan never died.

A pier

The fare for the ferry remained between five and ten cents for a long time, but in the late 1990s, fares were completely discontinued.
Today, the Staten Island Ferry remains one of the greatest free ries in the country, with amazing views.
We waited in the entrance to the rterminal, and boarded as soon as the doors opened.
I should have just taken the first big bunch of seats that came available, but instead I moved further ahead and there were less.

911 Memorial

Some of us watched through the window as the ferry made its 5.2 mile trek across New York Harbor. We could see the Statue of Liberty as we rode.
It didn’t take long, maybe fifteen minutes or so to get across, and we exited out to the Whitehall Terminal in Manhattan.
I think we waited around here for some of the group to catch us. I recall Dan saying he would catch up with us around the World Trade Center or something. We just had to decide what the route to get there would be.

Liberty

I decided at some point I wanted to walk through Battery Park and just follow the waterfront for a time. The temperature was actually really nice. Not cold at all.
It was really a beautiful walk to the north, with lights in view everywhere. I could see the Jersey Central Terminal in Liberty State Park plainly across the Hudson, as well as the Colgate Clock in Jersey City.
We continued walking along the waterfront to the north. I think Dan was going to try to meet back up with us at the World Trade Center area. I truthfully had no serious plan once we got off of the boat.

Manhattan

I figured after the Staten Island section, everyone else would sort of make their own way wherever they wanted anyway, so I didn’t have to plan too hard.

The old building on the rail bed at Staten Island

Even before we got to the ferry we lost a lot of people. It was kind of surprising, because last year it was amazing that the entire group pretty much stayed together the entire route back to Manhattan.
Still, it didn’t matter much. This was the point where we could just come up with fun stuff.
I was getting pretty tired, so I didn’t want to go too much longer.
We decided that we were going to go to the World Trade Center Site, and then I figured we were going north to Penn Station, but I forgot that we could take a train to Jersey City and Exchange Place from WTC, so the plan changed immediately.

WTC site from the WFC in 2006

As we approached the World Trade Center on the waterfront, I got the idea that we would do a roue around it like I used to do every year for several years.

WTC site from WFC today

That route was the Wold Financial Center. I found in the days after 9/11 that it was the best way to view the WTC site, and no one really bothered you going through it.

Holocaust memorial box car

We walked by a Holocaust Memorial box car on display, which I hear is traveling the country. It was one of the ones apparently that the Jews in Germany were moved to Concentration Camps in. It was cool that we got to see it as we went by unexpected.
When we got to WTC, we turned to the right and headed to the east side. That is where there was a pedestrian bridge that used to connect directly from the old Twin Towers into the World Financial Center. I found out one day that the bridge had been reopened with steps, and up into the World Financial Center.

NYC view

From the windows on the bridge itself, from the window in the first section of the WFC, and then from the main room which is now referred to as the Winter Garden I believe, the entire WTC site was plainly in view. It was not a direct route around, but I figured out what turns to make in order to get on through.
Now, the bridge looks like it might have been replaced completely, or at least was completely overhauled. It still sits in the same location. It still leads into the same part of World Financial Center. We made our way through, which was a much more obvious route to the Winter Garden than it was so many years ago.

World Financial Center Winter Garden

I paused on the way and tried to take a photo at the same point I took so many others in the past looking toward the former site of the Twin Towers. It’s amazing it’s the same place.

The bridge

We took a break in the Winter Garden and enjoyed the view. The large marble steps make sort of an amphitheater, and often when we go through thee are singers performing in the middle. There was no one there this time, and so I suggested to Jack that we go down there and sing one. I think we did two actually.
When we did Lennon’s “Happy Christmas (War Is Over)”, security guys came out but didn’t stop us until after that song. They said they didn’t want to stop us until after that anyway.

WFC

From here, there was now a set of escelators that went down directly from the Winter Garden of World Financial Center to the subway station. I don’t remember that being there the last time I was in.
We headed down and used them to get into the station.
I remember when the station had just been rebuilt with new tubes, I rode the subway and looked out to see light, from the big hole the Twin Towers left. I took a few photos because I realized it would be the only time we would ever see the light of day in this station, and that it probably would not be like that for very long.

On the escelator

We headed down the escelator, and then ended up in the station, which I don’r remember ever being in since it was finished. It looked like the giant mouth of a whale inside it.
We checked it out briefly, and then bought tickets for the next train back to Jersey City.
We then headed down into the station, and I basically followed the herd at this point, because I’m not familiar at all with the trains out of this one. We managed to all (all of us who were left anyway) get down to the subway.

The inside of the new WTC station

We took off soon after entering, and then had to get off at the Exchange Place in Jersey City.

In WTC station

The city is really beautiful at night even over there. We walked along and started heading in the direction of the Light Rail. We figured we would find someplace to eat on the way back.
Some of the group went on to the light rail to get back to Liberty Park Station, and some of us stopped to eat, but I cannot remember for the life of me where we stopped. I know it was right along the way, but I don’t know.
I think I had a burger. I can’t quite recall what I ate either. All I can say was that it was good.

Foooood...might have been Greene Hook Bar and Kitchen?

We continued out of the restaurant, and I think some crashed at Stephen Argentina’s place in Jersey City. The rest of us continued to walk and passed by the next light rail station.

Meeee

It was only like two miles or something back to the station, so it didn’t really make sense to go for the light rail back, even though most of us should have had tickets that would work for it (I forgot to endorse mine at the machine).
We walked along the light rail tracks out toward where the Morris Canal used to go through the city. I think some of it might be right on it.
We went past the Jersey Avenue Station, and then continued south into Liberty State Park across the Morris Canal Big Basin inlet. It looked like they were building a brand new bridge for a road across here.

halleluja

For as long as I’ve gone to Liberty, the access from Jersey Avenue was always a foot bridge, the route of Liberty Water Gap Trail. There is some seriously heavy construction going on there now. I think for sure they are building some sort of connecting road, which I don’t know is a particularly good idea.
The road on the other side of the bridge remains historic pavers rather than concrete or asphalt. I fear with the new bridge in place, it will probably get beat up much more because of added traffic. We continud to the right on Johnston Ave which took us directly to the station.

FUN!

The hike went really very well overall. It was such a route that kept us together, but showcased all sorts of different stuff within New York City that none of us would have expected, and still brought us to past favorite places.
Further, I could do almost the same general route again, and still have it be more than 50% all new stuff we’ve never done. There are so many more opportunities for great routes, it’s looking like it’ll be more something for me to look forward to as much as everyone else does.
HAM