A tri-borough improvement!

The Triborough bridge just got better! Much better. Like so many blog writers, I bitch a lot. But then there's a lot about which to bitch when biking in NYC. So it's great to see something better (especially just days after I complained that nothing was better).

I was riding to West End Ave and 94th St today. For variety, I decided to take the sketchy Triborough Bridge. I thought it might be shorter (it is, by a half mile, but wasn't any faster). But I like variety. I even like sketchy. Plus the view from the top of the Triborough, above traffic, without a chainlink fence, looking down at the beautiful and under-appreciated Hell Gate Bridge (did you know the Sydney Harbor Bridge is modeled after our very own Hell Gate Bridge?), it can't be beat. And dag, it's a long way down.

Even leaving aside the outpatients, I've written about the problems of this bridge before, but now there's something new. It's a huge project and a huge improvement: A nice new exit ramp from the Astoria to Wards Island part. This means the worst part of the ride--the nasty next to highway traffic mile--is gone!

Meanwhile there's still a lot of surface construction, so if anything right now the ride is worse than ever. But one day the construction will be done and it will be great.

Sort of. There's still no real signage actually telling a rider how to get from one part of the bridge to another. The Triborough is actually three bridges, and on bike, you go up an down all of them. And it's not easy to figure out how to get to them. So I've made a map. I hope this helps somebody. The more bikes that ride over this bridge, the better for all bikes. And, oh yeah, technically riding your bike over this bridge is prohibited. What a city...

You can zoom on these. The green is the new ramp! The blue is the bad part that doesn't exist anymore. The white line is the ground-level connection between the Queens bridge and the Harlem bridge.

Finding the Manhattan/Harlem/125th Street connection (it actually drops you off on 126th St, but whatever) is tough. Coming from Queens and following the white line, make a left into what looks like the access road to a municipal parking lot. Turn before the green garbage trucks. Then look left for the ramp under the bridge. One you find it, there is actually a sign.
(click on picture to zoom.)

Last time I checked, you can also ride on the south side of the Randall Island to Harlem bridge. But I don't see any advantage. And last time I did, there was a small homeless encampment on the south side. Not really biker friendly.

Also, you may be tempted, but you can't get through the golf course on the west side of the triborough.

There is also a pedestrian bridge on the southwest corner of Ward Island to East Harmlem (El Barrio). I've never been over it because it's up most of the time. It connects to the projects (East River Homes) at what would be E 103rd St.

More uplifting moments from today's ride: how damn beautiful so many Harlem brownstones are. Biking through Central Park (with one eye on sexy joggers). I love New York!

Biking the beautiful Triborough Bridge

Check out the lastest on the bike ride on the Triborough, from Randall's Island into Harlem. Normally the blog is about food. I'm glad she didn't eat anything on they way.

I've had some issues on the bridge myself. But I can't really blame the bridge. It keeps it real.

Facing My Demons on the Triborough Bridge

On September 20th, 2004, I was biking back from a Yankee game and wiped out on the Triborough Bridge I was pretty messed up.

I haven’t been over the bridge since then. It’s not that I was avoiding it. I just don’t often need to go to Harlem or the South Bronx from Queens.

Last year, coming back to Astoria, I was on the Triborough Bridge and didn’t see a bump. It was dark, my front light was flopping around, and the headlights from oncoming cars were in my eyes. The bump is probably a half-foot high and is poorly asphalted over. Hitting it is basically like hitting a small curb. It’s also on a downhill. So I was going about 22 miles-per-hour. I hit the bump and went flying. It happened very fast, as they say. I bruised various points on the right side of my body, from my hip to my eye.

You can see some of my injuries in these pictures from last year taken a few days after the fall.



These are old pictures. Please don’t think I fell off my bike again. What the pictures don’t show was the fractured rib. Damn that hurt. Luckily, I didn’t hurt anything that didn’t heal. Amazingly, my bike wasn't damaged at all, except for a lost rear reflector. In fact, I was able to bike home (damn, that hurt, too).

Yesterday I went to see my Chicago Cubs lose yet again at Yankee Stadium. I was able to revisit the disaster scene.

This is the bump that did me in:




I went over it very slowly.

I imagine that after my fall I looked something like this. But bloodier.



The Triborough Bridge is by far the seediest of the city’s bridge crossings. There are three separate bridges. About a 2-mile stretch links Queens and Randalls and Wards Islands (they’ve long since become one land mass). Then you have a choice to go to either the Bronx or to 125th St. in Harlem. Each of these stretches is another mile. In general, the path is long, littered, and frequented by the occasional out-patient from the mental hospitals on Wards Island.

The Triborough is an expensive $4 toll for cars. It brings in a lot of cash for the State (in typical political hypocrisy, New York State won’t let New York City charge any tolls for the city’s bridges). So it’s a real shame that the Bridge Authority can’t sweep the path every now and then of trash and sand and broken glass.


All that said, and if you don’t mind the three flights of stairs, it’s incredibly beautiful. And for the main span over the East River, you’re above the traffic level, which is a peaceful treat.

The views are spectacular. To the North is the Hell Gate Bridge. This underappreciated bridge was the largest span bridge in the world when it opened in 1916. It allowed trains to go from New England through New York to New Jersey and all points West. Previously, trains had to dead end into Grand Central Terminal. .



To the South you see Manhattan and the Empire State Building. The little red bridge links Queens and Roosevelt Island. Behind that is the Queensboro Bridge.



The path continues to the West before turning North.



Between Randalls Island and the Bronx is a little creek connecting the Harlem and East Rivers. This is all the keeps the “Island” in Randalls Island. That’s the mainland on the other side.



The rest of the day can be seen on my other blog.