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We're standing on the Grand Concourse, the literally
grand, ultrawide boulevard that runs north to south down the
spine of the west Bronx. We are high above the westbound Cross
Bronx. The cross street immediately below us is Walton Avenue.
The beige painted elevated railway in the background is the Jerome
Avenue IRT subway line, designated the #4 train. This, along
with the Grand Concourse's own subterranean lines, serve nearby
Yankee Stadium about 14 blocks to the left. The steel-arched
overpass cutting diagonally between Walton and Jerome is 174th
Street. The background is forested for the most part with typical 1920's and 1930's era Bronx apartment houses, although the high risers discernible in the far background are probably from the 1960's. This vicious highway wouldn't give me the satisfaction of catching it with a typical clogged jam-up heading westbound. Believe me, the only time most of you are ever likely to see this road clear of stalled traffic is in this photo! |
| Much the same scene as the top shot, aimed more northwest. What the hell. These are my only personally taken shots of this horrorway, so I have to milk their blood. This section of the Cross Bronx was the most difficult to punch through of all it's myriad sections. Not only did the hard rock have to be blasted away and many buildings condemned, but both the Jerome el and the Grand Concourse subway had to be shored up and tunneled under. Not only that, but the constantly changing grades had to be kept as gradual as possible, to allow trucks to safely down shift. The human misery caused by the wholesale evictions required in order to clear the highway's right-of-way is probably unparalled in the entire history of urban arterial roadbuilding. The building of the Cross Bronx was as merciless on nature and geography as it was on the affected communities. The worst traumas inflicted by this road however, are the everr continuing jams that fill it daily and nightly, mostly on the westbound lanes, pretty much the whole way westward from the giant Bruckner interchange in the Soundview section, straight through to the Alexander Hamilton Bridge which carries the Cross Bronx over the Harlem River into Manhattan and the Trans Manhattan Expressway that leads into the George Washington Bridge. |
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On a happier note, this was shot on an incredibly sweltering
July 1999 Sunday afternoon. A group of us were on a Forgotten
NY walking tour organized by Kevin Walsh, a frequent contributor
to this site, whose own fantastic Forgotten NY site is a must see! We were trekking down the Grand Concourse heading with hope for Yankee Stadium, where David Cone was scheduled to pitch and we figured we had a good chance of getting in no later than the 3rd inning. All of a sudden, not a couple of blocks south of this point, we run smack into the heart of a Dominican street festival and parade. We slowed down quite a bit as we took in the sights, sounds and people. The sky grew omminously dark, but we had seen those false alarm cloud teases for weeks, as NY was in the grips of a withering drought. This time it was no tease. Without so much as one advance drop to signal the coming of a storm, a torrent of water poured from the laden clouds and didn't let up for nearly a half and hour. It was a prodigious outpouring of pent up cloud-rage. We were fortunately able to duck into an apartment building lobby with a huge gathering of rain-soaked Dominican revelers, although none of us, nor any Dominicans minded getting a little soaked. It was that hot out before the storm! |
| By the time the storm ended, we figured the game would have been rained out and the moment had passed anyway. We were all tired, wet, not anxious to risk our camera equipment to any more sudden downpours and very thirsty. Three of us went back north to Bedford Park and ducked into a bar, just in time to pick up the Yankee game in the 5th inning. Sure enough they restarted it after nearly an hour's rain delay. We watched to the end. Cone went all the way. He had to. He had a perfect game going. As luck would have it, we turned our heels on one of history's greatest pitching performances! At least I got to see it on TV. I'd never even seen a televised no hitter before that, let alone a perfect game. |
