Hike #1468; Clason Point to Bronxville

 

Hike #1468; 2/6/22 Clason Point to Bronxville with Alex Gisser, Justin Gurbisz, Sarah Jones, Jack Lowry, Serious Sean Dougherty, Anne M, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Brittany Weider, Jennifer Tull, Jennifer Berndt, Steve Sanbeg, Tamara Sapilak, Peter Fleszar, Stephen Argentina, Professor John DiFiore, and CJ ?

This next hike would be the first proper one in a series on the Bronx River Greenway.

I had looked at this greenway for a very long time, as it was a rather complete trail route all the way from the upper Bronx River where it came from a reservoir all the way down to the Bronx. It was kind of amazing that I'd never really focused any hikes on this until recently.

My first taste of the Bronx River Greenway was on the Holiday NY City hike of 2020. It was the first covid Christmas and I wanted to do something that would be a bit out of the way than all of the popular stuff that we tend to do on that hike. Part of it included a bit of the Bronx River from Clason Point up to Starlight Park. 

I really quite enjoyed it, and so I figured I would put together a Bronx River series. There were rail stations along much of the way, and only this first one would require car shuttles.

For this hike, we met in Bronxville at the train station there. From that point, we would shuttle in as few cars as possible south to Clason Point, where we had walked through on the previous trip. I wanted to start down at the proper end of the Bronx River where it flowed into the East River, but I also wanted to walk a section of the walkway along the waterfront that we had missed on that previous hike, the Shore Haven Bike Path.

Unfortunately, when we got to Soundview at Clason Point, the pathway gate was closed to the gated community area. It had been closed that previous time as well, so this was disappointing.

I figured we could probably go down into Clason Point Park and bushwhack around onto the path, but the problem was there were police right there writing someone up for something and I didn't want to look like we were out to cause problems. We'd have to find another way.

The site of Clason Point was originally home to native Americans known as the Siwanoys, who had more than seventy dwellings here.

The site became known as Cornell's Neck in 1643 when Thomas Cornell began farming here. A dispute between the Cornells and the Siwanoys was known as the Pig Wars.
The British took over after 1664, and the area was eventually named Clason Point after a Scottish merchant and landowner, Isaac Clason. The area saw new life as a resort area in the early 1800s, and from 1883 to 1927, it was Clason Point Military Academy.
Today, it is a lovely waterfront park with outstanding views and a ferry boat.
We didn't spend a lot of time down at the end. We walked Soundview to the northwest, and then made a left turn on Gildersleeve Ave. Just a short distance ahead there was Harding Park on the right, and we turned to the right into it. There was a path through the center which led along ball courts, and then up to Bolton Avenue. 

We took a restroom break when we were in the middle of the park, and then continued north out of it and up to O'Brien Ave. We followed that west for about two blocks to the entrance to Soundview Park. We headed directly in and toward the waterfront.

Soundview Park, at the mouth of the Bronx River, was built on a landfill over intertidal marshland under Park Commissioner Robert Moses and New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1937-39. The park reached its current size with acquisitions through 1967. It is the southernmost lands of the Bronx River Greenway.

I sipped a whiskey barrel aged imperial oatmeal stout through here called "Buddy Pass" which was pretty good. 

This park was really a nice walk along the waterfront, with some old bulkhead areas to our left we could go out and stand on. We must have walked over to every one of them that provided any kind of view to the water. Stephen and Justin were going down onto the segments of them still sitting on the water edge. Fortunately most of the snow in the area had melted off, making this a much more comfortable walking situation.

We continued north along some ball fields, then through a swath of woods to Colgate Avenue. We had to walk north on that road for a bit to reach Bruckner Expressway.

From this point, to continue on the official greenway, in the past we had to walk across the Bronx River here and then head into Concrete Plant Park, which has a really cool. It was a concrete plant that was in use from the 1940s through 1987, and then turned into a park in 2009. We hiked through it in 2020, but this time it was closed for some sort of construction. We continued to head north instead on the east side of Bronx River, past all sorts of little businesses with murals everywhere. It seemed like most any vacant section of building or surface without a window was seen as a palet, and adorned with some sort of impressive art.

We continued to Westchester Avenue, and then crossed the Bronx River there, directly beneath the elevated rapid transit rail bridge, which is an interesting piece of infrastructure. It crossed over more tracks at the west end.

At the end of the bridge and to the left was the Westchester Avenue Station, designed by Cass Gilbert and constructed in 1908 for the New York, Westchester, and Boston Railroad. It remained in use until 1937, and is abandoned in poor condition today over Amtrak's busy northeast corridor.
Amtrak has the station on its demolition list, and although it has been advocated for preservation, no government agency has extended protection or even recognition of historic status.
A plan to turn part of the station into a pedestrian bridge is currently written into a Bronx River Greenway plan, but it remains uncertain whether it is happening. Construction is currently taking place in Concrete Plant Park.

We checked out the station a bit, and then crossed to the right, up Edgewater Road parallel with much bigger Sheridan Blvd. This was because we couldn't get into the access from Concrete Plant Park over to Starlight Park due to more construction. 

We made our way into Starlight Park at the first access, and there was a new bowstring arch suspension pedestrian bridge over the Bronx River there, which I don't think had been opened the last time we were there. We headed down to the waterfront where there was a good view downstream. 

Out in the ball fields of the park was a giant snow ball that had begun to melt, and was now rather solid, so the group scurried out there and started pushing the thing all the way toward the waterfront. 

Randy managed to give it his all and pushed the thing around a corner, over walls, and then down the ADA ramps to the dock in the river, and then off it went into the water. This level of juvenile joy was just great.

From here, we walked north along the river in Starlight Park, and beneath the 174th Street bridge, which was a pretty through truss structure. The bridges of the area including this and the aforementioned bowstring arch, and the next bowstring arch pedestrian bridge just ahead, were done in an attractive sky blue. 

At the point of the bridge, we crossed to an open area, and I was pushing ahead, but some of the group stopped and found one of those City Bikes had been thrown off into the Bronx River. They decided to rescue it, and the next thing you know, I saw Randy riding around on it. 

It was amazingly in serviceable condition, and it joined us for a little while. This was in the West Farm section of the Bronx.

We passed under the Cross Bronx Expressway and passed by the West Farms Bus Depot, then came out to 177th Street. We continued ahead to Tremont Avenue and turned left to cross the river again, then right onto the Bronx River Parkway again. It headed north to pass beneath another elevated rapid transit railroad. 

Just past this point there was an amphitheatre on the edge of the trail, built into a slope. 

The river passes through an area here known as the West Farm Rapids, and brick buildings line the other side. Some of these buildings have old masonry lower levels or foundations. They are probably the oldest sections of the old stone mills that once operated on this part of the river. 

We reached 180th Street and had to turn right and cross, because straight ahead is the Bronx Zoo and we weren't going to pay to go in. The bridge we crossed is a stone arch built in 1925.

We went a few blocks, and then the trail turned left along a giant stone wall, which form a barrier of the Unionport Rail Yard. It was quite impressive.
Pete met us here after having taken the train from near his home out in Lancaster, all the way to the city, and then up to the Bronx River! The timing was near perfect because this point was close to a station.

The trail took us parallel with Bronx River Parkway a little bit, and then under it, then parallel with more of the Unionport Yards, and out to an interesting location known as Renaqua.

1930s mill scene at the rapids

Ranaqua Bronx Headquarters of the New York City Parks was built as a Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in 1937 on land purchased by the city as part of Bronx River Park in 1906.

Renaqua

The name is a Reckgawank Algonquin word meaning "end place".
The park movement took on its life in the 1880s and grew to one of the most amazing and extensive park systems in the world. Four sprawling brick buildings are situated in this area, and it seems that trail users are encouraged to go left around them, on Birchall Avenue. We weren't going to do this. I decided we would try to walk right up through the center of it.

No one bothered us, and it was a nice little walk to have a better look at the old buildings. Once on the other side of this complex, we beared to the left and then got to more paved path which went right out alongside the Bronx River Parkway for a time.

Bronx River Parkway was the first limited access highway to begin construction, in 1907, and the second to open after Long Island Motor Parkway.
Bronx River Parkway was also the first highway to utilize a median strip to delineate opposing lanes. It was also first where intersecting streets crossed over bridges.
The section we were walking along as well as several others were straightened and modernized in the 1950s.
The road currently stretches just over 19 miles from Story Avenue in the Bronx to Kensico Circle in Westchester County, with Bronx River Greenway trail parallel most of the way.

The trail turned to the right after a bit into some of Bronx Park East. It passed by a lovely giant Yellow Poplar tree and then along some ball fields. 

We sipped some Brentino Cabernet while wandering, which was some of the Governor's wine I procured, and regrouped when the trail got rather close to the road known as Bronx Park East. 
The stretch is reportedly the one used for sequences in the 1961-63 police sitcom "Car 54 Where Are You?". I remember watching the show on Nick at Nite when I was little. It was a typical silly sitcom of the time following officers Toody and Muldoon running around the Bronx on assignments.

We continued north through the park and out to Pelham Parkway South where we decided we would stop to try to find some lunch somewhere. Alex knew the area best, and told us that there was plenty just up the road. I didn't want to go too far off the trail, which was why I waited until this area because there was stuff so close.

After walking for a few blocks and passing several places, I decided I wasn't going to go any farther because we had so far to go. If we spent too much time on side trips it would surely be dark before we were done.

I decided not to eat anything and waited at the corner of White Plains Road and Pelham Parkway for everyone to get back from wherever they decided to go.

When we were all back together, we headed north on Pelham Parkway then to the west to get back on the next section of trail. 

The Thain Family Forest section of Bronx River Greenway was on the west side of the parkway, but we kept with the east side because there are so many trails through it, we could do just about this same hike again a totally different way, and probably will one day.

We headed to the north, and across an on ramp to the Bronx River Parkway, but I did not see the trail I was looking for. I think the group left the City Bike we found somewhere back just before this.

We walked along the edge of the on ramp for a bit, then headed straight up a hill and onto a foot path over natural rock outcroppings, which was really pretty nice. This brought us along Reiss Field and along another formal paved path. A left turn ahead took us down slope and onto an abandoned road that was once a road through the park, and is little used now. We followed this past an area where there were steps down a wall to the right from Bronx Park East. We continued north across Allerton Road, then came out to the corner of Duncomb Ave and Bronx Blvd. We crossed, and then headed down to a flood plain on the east side of the Bronx River as it weaved around a bit. 

We kept to the right side of the Bronx River Parkway even when the river was on the left, just because eventually I want to walk all of this anyway, but also because I was not sure there would be a pedetrian route under the bridges if we were to make that attempt. It turned out there were, just about every time, so I'll certainly have to do it all again.

The river came under the highway again from the left, and we continued ahead with the river on our left. Hyman Park and Shoelace Park were the names of a couple of sections we went through walking ahead. It was a super pleasant trip to the north, but the path came to an abrupt end at a point just south of 233rd Street. We walked up to the street, and then crossed the stone arch bridge over the river completed in 1924, and on the other side was a set of steps that led back down to the next segment of trail.

The trail went south just a bit, then weaved to the north again along an on ramp to Bronx River Parkway. The trail went under a stone arch bridge carrying 233rd Street over top, and then passed the Woodlawn Metro north station on the right. The trail then descended back to the edge of the river, in an area known as Muskrat Cove. 

I got our group shot at this pretty spot along the river, and then we turned to the right and the trail passed along with the river beneath the railroad tracks carried by a pretty stone arch.

The trail turned, and we began to approach the giant 238th Street Bridge (now Nereid Ave). Built in 1930, the 769 ft closed spandrel concrete arch span connects Bronx and Westchester Counties, passing over not only the trail and Bronx River, but also Bronx River Parkway, Metro North New Haven and Harlem lines, which have their junction just out of sight from where we were to the right.

The trail continued just a little bit further to the north, and then turned hard to the right across the Bronx River yet again, and then ended. It apparently was planned to continue, but never has been. We all turned to the left, off trail, and tried bushwhacking along the river to the north. That worked well enough for a time, but it got a little nasty after a while.

We got to a point where we were close enough to the Wakefield Station that we could just climb up the hill, dash across the tracks, and climb up to the station platform in a few seconds. 

I went up first to see how doable it was without touching the third rail much. It was easy and I was up there quick. Everyone followed me, though not as quickly as I'd hoped they would be, and we all got safely up onto the platform.

From there, we just headed up the steps that took us up to Wakefield Avenue and followed the road to the west, to Wakefield Park on the corner.

Across Bronx River Road on the other side was a convenience store, so we paused for a few moments to restock, and then headed through Wakefield Park a bit, but it had a ridiculous fence around it so we ended up having to walk Bronx River Road to the north longer than I would have liked.

We had many blocks to walk on this road just above Bronx River Parkway on the west side, but there was no good way of getting through. We just followed it until we got to Oak Street. We turned right there to cross Bronx River Parkway, and then along the edge of an on ramp on the other side, the trail started back up again. After a bit, we crossed over the river yet again, and then the trail split in two. 

We kept to the left, closer to the river, and it just looped back onto itself ahead. There was an access off of an on and off ramp from the Bronx River Parkway, but the trail did not continue from here. 

We had to go off trail again from here, along a slope above the on ramp, and then onto the edge of the highway itself. When the road started to turn to the left to cross Bronx River Parkway, we had to go straight a bit in the narrow swath of land between the river and the Harlem Valley line railroad tracks. 

Once again, we had to dash across the tracks and up the platform on the other side, Fleetwood Station on the Mt Vernon area.

The original Fleetwood Station was built in 1924 by the New York Central Railroad. It became part of Penn Central after the 1968 merger with Pennsylvania Railroad, then MTA in 1983.

We made our way to the top, onto Broad Street, and started heading east. There seems to be a missing greenway section from this point to Bronxville, so I decided we would walk Broad east, and then head north on Gramatan Ave and try to head back over to the river from there.

The homes on the farther part of this road were absolutely beautiful. 

Grey Rocks Mansion was a really stand out amazing one on the right side of the road, built in 1909. I don't have any more history on it regarding who it was built for or what they did.

Just ahead, we crossed the Laurel Brook with accesses on both sides to Hunt Woods Park. I wasn't sure what it would be like, but this was a great trail along the brook here. We turned left and were able to follow it right on back to Scout Field on the Bronx River Greenway.

This swath of land along the brook was originally intended to build the Cross County Parkway, a major highway, which never happened here so the land was never developed.

We kept to the left when we hit the ball fields, and then reached the paved trail ahead. The trail does go left, but it just loops around to another access. Our wa was to go right a bit.

After the fields, there was a foot path over to the left that I followed over the smaller brook, and then back to the paved trail ahead. It then turned left and passed beneath Midland Avenue.

The double stone arch bridge over Bronx River has a conflicting history, saying bridge was built in 1924, but earlier photos of it are are dated 1917.
We continued on the other side of the bridge close to the river, and then reached the 1865 stone double culvert over the river carrying the Harlem Valley Metro North line, former New York Central, Bronxville NY. Another span for a third track was added in 2001, and the original stone one will probably outlive that.

When we got under the bridge, the stone work was only visible from the downstream side easily. We could still see the upstream side, but the new track and beams over it made it hard to see it from afar.

We came out to Parkway Road and the section of trail ended. We had to turn right to continue to the end at Bronxville Station. I was glad not to be done after dark.

This was a really fantastic greenway, and I was so glad to get started on this one. There's so much to see on it, and still so much more to see even in the segments we had already done. We'd definitely have to come back very soon.