Inwood, 218th Street at Broadway

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx………………….. click to enlarge

Oh, thank goodness, a new walk. And look at that sunshine! And the sky is blue!

Bill, my son, was here for a visit, and as devoted readers know, we usually go for a photowalk when he is here. This time, though, it was either raining or too hot to go for a walk until the very last day, when we decided to at least get in a short walk before he left to go home to D.C.

Here's the beginning at 218th Street where the elevated subway joins Broadway. And up ahead is the Broadway bridge. We are going to walk the few short blocks to the end of Manhattan Island and show all you downtowners and out-of-towners what's there. You'll never come and see for yourselves, I know.

Don't you love pink call boxes?  I regret to say I don't know what that odd building is - something to do with Columbia, I assume.  I'll try to check it out later.


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Inwood, 218th Street Between Indian Road and Seaman Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This is reserved parking for people attending the ACRC (Annual Convention of Red Cars).

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Inwood, 218th Street Between Indian Road and Seaman Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Now, having voted and drunk my wine and having sat at the open window long enough to get chilly, I'm on my way home.

Right next to Indian Road Café is Scavengers. Not Avengers. That would be an interesting store. But so is Scavengers. It is a small store crammed with antiques and collectibles. There is one narrow passageway through all the stuff and if another customer happens to be in the store, there's a bit of squeezing by each other to do. I've bought a few things there over the years, some dishes and a wooden chair among them.

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Inwood, 218th Street Between Seaman Avenue and Indian Road

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

There across the street is my destination: Indian Road Café. I don't remember how long the sign was up announcing its coming, but it was a long time, and people were getting mighty impatient, then it finally opened in June this year. It's out here on the edge of nowhere but they seem to be doing a good business. I guess there's enough traffic from the park. By the way, it is NOT an Indian restaurant.

Everybody in the world who does not live in Inwood should understand that Inwood is not like the rest of New York. It has parks, not restaurants. So to have a restaurant AND a park is quite a thrill for us.

Anyway this was my Election Day celebration, when I was feeling pretty confident about Obama's chances, only the tinsiest bit nervous, and it seemed right to be here in the café, sitting by the open window, having a glass of wine and some olives and almonds.

By the way, it is claimed that Indian Road is the only road in Manhattan. Or was that New York? Some day I'll check it.

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Inwood, 218th Street Between Seaman Avenue and Indian Road

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


This is where the boathouses are for Columbia's rowing teams. And that body of water is what connects the Harlem River with the Hudson and what separates Manhattan from the Bronx. EXCEPT for Marble Hill which is part of Manhattan but is across the body of water. I'll get to the name of the body of water in a minute.

Marble Hill used to be attached to Manhattan and the Spuyten Duyvil Creek was around its northern edge and separated Manhattan from the Bronx. Then some engineers figured out it would be more efficient to plow a water channel straight through Manhattan, so they basically chopped Marble Hill off and left it an island. Then they could get from the Harlem River to the Hudson 14 miles faster. Soon after, they filled in the Spuyten Duyvil Creek so Marble Hill was no longer an island, but was now part of the Bronx, geographically speaking. Legally, they're still in Manhattan.

So this body of water is officially called the Harlem River Ship Canal, but I think it's still casually referred to as the Spuyten Duyvil Creek. My map is silent on the matter. Go here for a more lengthy and official history of the area. And go to the wonderful Wikimapia to see the reality of this end of Manhattan. I should probably start linking to Wikimapia instead of Mapquest.



Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

218th Streets ends at Inwood Hill Park which you see there in the distance. I've written enough tonight, so I'll save the park for another day. This was the third flurry of runners who had thundered by me, I guess they're from Columbia, so I said, oh, all right, and took a picture of them.

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Inwood, 218th Street Between Park Terrace West and Seaman Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2008 ……... click to enlarge

Now here, you can see a bit of the playing field, just past this darn tree that's blocking the view.

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Inwood, 218th Street Between Park Terrace West and Seaman Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

And here is the Lawrence A. Wien Stadium. You can find out pretty much everything about the Baker Field athletic complex at the Washington Heights Inwood web site, including the fact that the first televised baseball game was held at Baker Field May 17, 1939. And the fact that Baker Field was named for George Fisher Baker, Jr. (1840-1931), who donated the funds to purchase the land, this fact putting to an end my belief that it was somehow connected with Bakersfield, California and The Girl With the Faraway Eyes.

However, what I'm immediately concerned with is the appearance this stadium makes backed up to the street. With what carelessness (or contempt) it exposes its bare bones backside to the neighborhood. What a view for the residents of this building across the street. Fie on you, Columbia!



Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


I can only hope the people who live here love college football.

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Inwood, 218th Street Between Park Terrace East and Park Terrace West

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Now, to pick up the Election Day walk from Tuesday. As I mentioned, I discovered that there are no long lines on Election Day in Inwood if you go in the middle of the day. Feeling a little anticlimactic about the whole voting experience, I decided not to go right home, but to have a glass of wine at our new restaurant and wine bar, Indian Road Café. I could sip wine and read the book I brought with me to the polls in case I had to stand in line for hours. So I headed down 218th Street.

It was a nice fall day here in New York and here are the trees to illustrate it. To the left is the eastern side of Columbia's stadium – more about that tomorrow.

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Inwood, 218th Street Between Park Terrace East and Park Terrace West

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

I seldom, if ever, interrupt a photowalk just because something is happening out there, but today I was so up about this election that I made an exception. I took my camera with me when I went to vote so I could photograph the record numbers of people waiting to vote, the lines out the door, down the block.

Uh. Well, apparently there were lines this morning.

One of the benefits of living in Inwood is that we don't have long lines for voting.

I'm posting this at 7:50 p.m. when not too many results are in yet, but it's looking good for Obama. But I won't relax until it's official.

By the way this is the Chrystie Field House, part of the Baker Field Athletics Complex of Columbia University.

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Inwood, 218th Street

Mary Sargent © 2006

Between Ninth and Tenth. A mighty colorful little block here.

Note: forget what I said about format change. Apparently what you see in Blogger preview is not what you get. What I saw was the photograph nestled in the upper left corner of the text; what I got was----this.

Inwood, 218th Street

Mary Sargent © 2006

Another shot from last Sunday. This is the eastern end of this street and yet it's between Ninth and Tenth Avenues. There is no East Side up here.