Thursday, June 25, 2015 Page B1
LIVING
SECTION
B
WHAT’S ON? Q DINING GUIDE Q WHAT’S COOKING? Q SPORTS Q REAL ESTATE Q CLASSIFIED Q SERVICE GUIDE Q BUSINESS CARD DIRECTORY
Once an aqueduct to rival ancient Rome’s, now a park connecting two boroughs By Nic Cavell ncavell@riverdalepress.com
J
ust over 30 minutes away from Riverdale by bicycle, the High Bridge has reopened to the public for the first time in about 45 years. On a recent tour of the bridge, which links Washington Heights and a Bronx neighborhood that’s actually named after the structure, Bronx historian Lloyd Ultan evoked the area’s distant past. “In the second half of the 19th century, there was an amusement park next to the High Bridge,” said Mr. Ultan. “There were hotels and a dock for steamships. The banks of the Harlem River were flocked with people crossing the bridge to enjoy the views.” At the time, the High Bridge was regarded as part of the country, the historian continued. North of the bridge’s majestic stone arches, members of the landed gentry careened back and forth in horse-drawn carriages they raced along the Harlem River Speedway. The High Bridge also formed the crucial last link in the Old Croton Aqueduct, Mr. Ultan said. Like the Roman waterways that preceded it, the aqueduct relied on gravity to transport water — in this case, all of 41 rollicking miles from Westchester County, through the future grounds of Van Cortlandt Park, across the High Bridge and down into Manhattan. The new supply of clean, pure water allowed New York City’s population to triple between 1842, when the aqueduct opened, and 1880. New aqueducts were constructed and water was piped in from the Catskills. City officials and businessmen began to dream of opening the Harlem River to water traffic, which remained partially obstructed by the
High Bridge. The easiest way to do so, they reasoned, would be to demolish the bridge and be done with it. But this plan proved unpopular with the tourists and area residents who had come to rely on the bridge as an easy passage between boroughs. Responding to public outcry, officials decided to compromise. In 1927, instead of demolishing the bridge, they replaced its midsection and the pillars supporting it with a high-arcing segment of steel. There was just one more question: what to do with the thousands of finely cut stones that had been removed? That’s where the histories of Riverdale and the High Bridge converge, according to Ellen Macnow of the Department of Parks and Recreation. “They took those stones and used them to construct the large retaining wall that goes up Riverdale Avenue,” she said, referring to the wall that climbs north from West 231st Street in Kingsbridge. Riverdale is situated on a rocky ridge whose soil needs lateral support to retain its shape. After the bridge stopped transporting water in the 1950s, the pedestrian path was closed around 1970. It took years for activists’ efforts to reopen the site to come to fruition — an experience that gives hope to Riverdalians eager for access to another part of the Bronx. “The great success of the High Line in Chelsea and now, the High Bridge, show people that these projects can get done,” said Bob Bender, a vocal advocate for the project to develop the Hudson River’s Bronx shore. “We have so much more momentum behind the greenway now that we didn’t have 10 or 15 years ago.” The High Bridge is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day. It is bicycle- and wheelchair-friendly.
AHSAKI BAILEY and her son Lynford meet officers from the 33rd Precinct while taking a morning walk across the reopened Highbridge on June 12. The view looking south from the reopened Highbridge span, at left. Anthony Lim, 35, and Danielle Nunez, 34, walk the newly reopened Highbridge with their children Gigi and Julien and their dog Logan, Below. A series of bronze medallion embedded in the reopened bridge, bottom.
Photos by Adrian Fussell
NOW INTRODUCING Learn more at halstead.com/3DWalkthru
742503
3D WALKTHRU TECHNOLOGY ON EXCLUSIVE LISTINGS