The Corner Conumdrum

Distance Traveled: 50.02 miles

My goal this weekend was to hit the Bronx and find a lost piece of my family's history, all the while taking in the essence of the Bronx since I haven't really explored it before.

I left pretty early and headed up 3rd Ave. One of the things that has always fascinated me about Manhattan is the awesome sight of its tremendous avenues. Cavernous walls of stone and steel extend as far as the eye can see. It's truly incredible.

I found out last week that NYDOT was doing one of their free helmet giveaways in Queens Bridge Park this past Saturday. How lucky for me that I had already planned to be up this weekend! Instead of heading straight up to the Bronx I took a quick detour into Queens. Queens Bridge Park, as you may imagine is just north of the Queensboro Bridge. I got there and found the yellow NYDOT van in the back corner. They had set up a couple tables with information. A small line had already formed with Kids and adults alike. The information on the table was mostly geared towards kids with coloring books and cartoons on bike safety. They, of course, had cycling maps, and cool bike stickers which read "I brake for Peds." They also had a very handy manual for biking in New York. It contains all of the city and state ordinances with regard to cycling and tips on locking your bike, turning, getting on bridges, ect. There's also a list of bike shops for each borough and links to useful cycling websites.
Before receiving the helmet I had to sign a waver indicating that I had been educated in the proper usage and safety of a helmet. After that my head was measured. The woman I was with instructed me on how to increase the tension on the helmet, and what a proper fit would be. They also gave me a reflective arm band to wear at night to be more visible. I left the park, and instead of back tracking, decided to head towards the RFK bridge and head ito the Bronx via Randall's Island. Once on the island I drew a conclusion which I hadn't quite stated last time I was there. There are green signs all over the island indicating locations and designations of different athletic fields (displayed right). Just from the number designations on the sign we can infer that there are quite a few on the island, which leads me to conclude that the island is some sort of sports Mecca. Realizing this, I hastened my exit (I'm not a big fan of sports and that kind of physical activity, in fact, biking is how I trick myself into getting exercise). As soon as I reached the Bronx, I headed uptown in a bike lane on St. Ann's Ave. I stopped at 138th st for lunch. It is a very busy road, alive with activity. You get a real sense of the ethnic base in the Bronx, which after a day of biking around, I feel confident in summing up with the picture displayed to the right. In it you will find an African hair braiding store next to a place called Rodriguez auto parts. The population which I observed was mostly Hispanic and African American.

My first stop was Crotona Park which sports a greenway through its center. This is when I first observed this interesting phenomenon which I haven't seen in any of the other boroughs. In Bronx parks bike families and groups of friends will just come out with tents and grills and have parties (depicted left). In some of the other parks, I actually saw signs which prohibited these "grill parties" in certain areas.

My next stop was The Bronx Zoo. It's the largest urban zoo in the United States. It is a designated New York City Landmark. I rode into the place thinking I might take a look around. I found out that it's $15 to get in. I never really had much interest animals, so I opted to keep my money and run. Instead I went down and around the corner to River Park which was exceptionally cool. It had an open lawn area where more people were BBQing. Then they had a playground area with all kinds of metal animal figurines which shot out mist with the touch of a button (depicted left). They also had the coolest climbing thing I have ever seen. It was some sort of 3 dimensional polygon (depicted right). Unfortunately I didn't feel like locking my bike up again, otherwise I would have been all over that thing.

The park also has a beautiful view of a waterfall along the Bronx River (depicted below).

Afterwards I went up to the Botanical Gardens which also cost money. guess I was in a cheep mood that day, because I opted out of that as well. It didn't help that the security guard was being a real jerk to me because I was on my bike. I cut through Fordam University and continued uptown to my primary objective.

Several years ago, I found documentation that the south east corner of 204th street and Valentine Avenue had been designated Anthony Suraci Corner. I've always wanted to go up there, but I never really had the time. Today however, I made it. And what did I bike 25 miles for? What have I spent years waiting to see?

It was a damn dollar store. No plaque, No statue, no nothin'. Oh well, at least I know what it is. I was definitely glad to make the pilgrimage. Apparently there is another designated location in Queens which bares the same name. I will be going there next.

It was time to go home. I took the Grand Concourse (depicted right). It's always nice to see major roads with bike lanes. Though this road was flat, the Bronx is much more hilly than the other boroughs (I guess I can't exactly speak for Staten Island yet, but who cares). You can see on either side of the concourse and many other locations, streets that are sloped up or down hill (depicted left).


I had to pass it anyway, so I stopped at Yankee Stadium (depicted right). Given my profound lack of Interest, I left immediately, and that's all I have to say about that. It was time to head back into Manhattan for my final stop. Since it was on my way back (more or less) I decided it was time to actually cross the walkway on the George Washington Bridge!

The easiest way into Manhattan was crossing the Washington Bridge. At first I didn't think much of it, however, as I got closer I became more interested. Then, half way across the bridge I found a bronze plaque telling the bridge's story. Apparently it is the second oldest major bridge in New York after the Brooklyn Bridge. Commissioned on April 30, 1889 for the Centennial of Washington's inauguration in New York, the Washington Bridge is is one of the best American examples of arch bridge design (depicted left in the foreground). I always enjoy finding our New information about bridges! From there I crossed through Washington Heights to the GWB. After some moderate difficulty figuring out how to get on, I finally began my ascent towards the middle of the bridge. It was extremely cool. It was very much similar to the Golden Gate Bridge (understandable considering that the Golden Gate took the title of longest suspension bridge in the world from the GWB in 1937). This GWB is more impressive though. The towers are just beautiful from an engineer's perspective, with it's silver cross beams and powerful super structure. Originally, designer Othmar Ammann, was going to encase the towers in stone, however he recognized the simplistic, raw ascetic appeal of his design and left it alone. What was truly amazing about this design was the foresight put into it. Ammann knew that traffic was likely to increase when the bridge was established, so he designed it with room for an expansion. In 1962 a whole new lower deck was added making it the only suspension bridge in the world with 14 lanes. One thing that really surprised me was the number of cyclists passing over the walkway. From the time I got on to the time I made it to the center I counted at least 25 (depicted right).


On one final note, I took Broadway all the way from Washington Heights down to Union Square. As I discussed in my last post, Broadway has been shut down in Times Square. Well I found it quite annoying this time around. There are cops everywhere which means you have no choice but to dismount your bike. Ten you have to fight your way through the crowd. Eventually I got frustrated and just switched over to 7th. After Times Square, I got back on Broadway only to find that they had decided to shut down s small section by 34th as well. This was quite annoying. Because of these shut downs, tourists all up and down Broadway seem to think that the bike lane is just another place for them to walk. That's the last time I ride that way, which is sad considering how much I enjoyed it. It was a very productive day. There are defiantly some portions of the Bronx I would like to return to.