Pelham Bay/Shore Road Bridge, Bronx, NY

Pelham Bay Bridge

It's still catch-up week here at Life, On a Bridged. This weekend is going to be a post about three beautiful bridges in the Portsmouth, NH area, and next week is going to be Covered Bridge Week. (Preview: we cover the most haunted bridge in the Berkshires!)

But for now, we're in the Bronx, at the Pelham Bay/Shore Road Bridge.

Usually when I visit the Bronx, I go by train. It's convenient, comfortable and even fun. Once in the city, the subway and buses bring me anywhere I need to go. This is how things were for years, until I got a car. While following the Merritt Parkway into New York, I came for the first time to NYC in a car. And that made all the difference. Unlike traveling in a train, in a car I could get lost. And while lost, I could find things.

I'd hoped to get a NYC bridge while I was in the area before heading back home to Connecticut (and I did, the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge). On the way to that bridge, I passed over this bridge. I immediately turned around, parked at the Bronx Equestrian Center, and looked for someplace with a good view of the bridge.

I didn't have to go far; there is a trail off of City Island Road (which has some pretty cool bike paths) which goes right up to the mouth of the Hutchinson River, over which the bridge runs.

The bridge is one of the busiest drawbridges in the city, second only to the Hamilton Avenue Bridge in Brooklyn. (Reading that report, btw, I bet I could spend a year, easy, just photographing New York City's historic bridges). It was completed in 1909, replacing a wooden bridge that crossed the river nearby, and celebrated its centennial a couple years back.

It's not a long bridge, but you can walk over it and enjoy both halves of the Pelham Bay Park (and landfill!). Say what you like about NYC, they have amazing parks. This trip I visited the Pelham Bay Park and the Ferry Point Park and was impressed by them both.

Whitestone Bridge, Bronx-Queens, NY

Bronx-Whitestone Bridge

It's a big bridge to be found by accident, but that's how I came by it. I was headed down the Merritt Parkway, hoping to get half decent car pictures of those bridges (I did, some of them). I'd gotten a bonus bridge at the Sikorsky factory. Since the Merritt Parkway leaves off in New York, I wondered if I could get a quick borough bridge  Maybe the Brooklyn Bridge. That would be a nice one.

I blindly followed Google Maps and saw I was about to come to the Whitestone Bridge -- and it had a toll. It also had a park right next to it... and it suddenly became the NYC bridge of the day (followed soon after by the Pelham Bridge, but that's a topic for another, shorter post).

Whitestone Bridge

The Whitestone Bridge crosses the East River, connecting the borough of the Bronx with the borough of Queens. Construction was managed by famous civil engineer Robert Moses, who, in his typical ruthless efficiency, tore down as many Queens homes as necessary to anchor the bridge. He and designer Othmarr Ammann would later collaborate on the nearby Throgs Neck Bridge, which I did not visit this trip.

The Bronx side of the bridge rises from Ferry Point Park. Bronx has many really nice parks; Ferry Point Park, though, has a wonderful view of Manhattan and is incredibly accessible.

Ferry Point Park

There is no pedestrian or bicycle access to the bridge. There is ample parking at Ferry Point Park, with easy access from route I-678. As mentioned before, you'll pay handsomely to take a jaunt to Queens on the bridge -- and you'll pay on the way back as well. At least the George Washington Bridge has the decency to charge only one way.

The bridge's proximity to the park make it a fantastic backdrop to weekend family enjoyment.

Bronx end of the Whitestone Bridge

I'm so, so very happy spring has come. Finally there's some life in these pictures.