High Bridge: Walk Across

City-Kid Review:

It’s high! I can see cars, trains, boats and the river.

The prosaically named High Bridge is, as you may guess,…ahem…
…a bridge which is…

…wait for it….

high.

Somewhat more poetically, let’s say, in a John Betjeman style:
A beautifully-arched sweeping high brick structure traversing a river, a railway track and a highway.
Busy going somewhere.
Or nowhere.

Even more poetically, the brick design pattern changes at the borough dividing line so you can straddle two boroughs at the same time. So you can have one foot in the Bronx and one in Manhattan, somewhat more reminiscent of William Blake:
Standing with a foot in two worlds
Boldly step into the bodied whole,
An island no more.
At once free and yet still bodily yok’d.

Okay, enough! I hope you know me well enough to know I am having fun with these two poetic masters.

The High Bridge is at once a wonderful folly and a practical application. A pedestrian highway and the only dedicated footbridge between two boroughs in New York City. Visionaries at the NY Park Services thought it would be a great project to restore after closing during the drug-infested 70s, and they were right.

The High Bridge was originally built as an aqueduct, in 1848, to bring water from the Croton River into burgeoning New York City. This explains the striking Victorian Water Tower on the New York side of the bridge. Water was originally collected into a former reservoir next to the tower, now a swimming pool.

Fall is a particularly beautiful time to visit, as you get a prime view of the trees aligning each side of the bridge. The Manhattan side has a Victorian (check this) water tower reaching up like a witch’s finger into the sky. The pool at its base forlornly drained, post Labor Day and the peels of summer laughter may only be imagined.

We enjoyed avoiding the steep staircase back up to street level by taking the accessible route back through the park to the subway as it extends through the riverside park, high up on a cliff, peering down at the river. It is a wonderful reminder that Manhattan is an island, which, in the hustle and flow of Midtown, is easy to forget.

Need to Knows:

High Bridge is New York City’s oldest continuously standing bridge.

Location: High Bridge Park. For Manhattan side, enter the park at 172nd street and walk towards the river. Once you get to the park, you will see the tower. Just walk to that. From the Bronx side, enter at 170th street and  University Street. The accessible entrance is on 167th street and Edgecomb.

Nearest subway, 168th on the A/C line. Walk downhill towards the river.

Cost: Fuhree!

Food: There are delis close to the park with basic American fair.

Top-Tip:

Allow time to do the walk to the accessible entrance, through the park.

Do you have a favorite NYC bridge? Please tell us about it in the comments section.

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