By Mark S. Tulis
October 26, 2007
Westchester County is truly one of the best biking venues which I have seen anywhere in the United States or overseas.
The North County and South County Trailways in Westchester County, along with the newly completed Putnam County Trailway, provide almost 45 miles of almost continuous bike path on the old Putnam Division of the New York Central Railway. After the “Old Put” stopped running in the 1950s the tracks were removed, but the right of way was maintained by the county and the state as open space until its recent rebirth as a paved bike path. Former train stations in Millwood, Briarcliff Manor, Yorktown Heights and Elmsford illustrate the old train route.
In 1987, when I was first elected to New Castle’s Town Board, I was contacted by representatives of the Westchester County Parks Department to determine New Castle’s interest in extending the North County Trailway from its northern terminus at Route 100 and the Old Campfire Road Taconic crossing. The New Castle portion of the railroad right of way was then just a dirt path and the remaining right of way up to Baldwin Place was impassable in certain locations.
Initial opposition to bike path
Having been an avid runner and cyclist, I was well aware of the right of way. Small portions of the right of way had been turned into a bike path in Briarcliff and to the south during the early 1980s. The question was whether New Castle would support an extension of the bike path from the Millwood hamlet, behind Ledgwood Commons, up to the Yorktown border. Surprisingly, when I first floated this idea to the public there was opposition from some residents of Millwood. It is hard to believe even now that many residents were afraid that the bike path would bring crime. During my public presentations, including one before the Millwood Task Force, I had to demonstrate that the crime rate on the Briarcliff Manor portion of the path was in fact quite low. That seems to have won the day,; the Millwood Task Force and New Castle Town Board voted to support the extension of the bike path.
New Castle’s decision led to the construction of the portion of the bike path from the Millwood hamlet to the Yorktown border, just north of the old railroad bridge that extends over Route 100 near Random Farms. We had a wonderful dedication in 1990 for the path and public use was immediate. Over the next few years the path was extended from Yorktown Heights through Somers to the Putnam County border in Baldwin Place.
Bridging the next gap
However, this still left a large gap in the trail between the Yorktown border with New Castle and Yorktown Heights; a five mile section that included, most importantly, the old railroad bridge over the Croton Reservoir. This bridge was mostly known for many years as the place where wayward teenagers, including friends of mine who are now far from being teenagers, would jump off the bridge into the reservoir. Concerns were raised that extending the bike path to the bridge would result in more kids jumping off the bridge and possibly more crime. Needless to say, those fears were allayed because it was recognized that kids would jump off the bridge whether there was a bike path or not. By that time I had become a Westchester County Legislator and was able to help the county obtain the federal funding necessary to renovate the Old Croton railroad bridge and extend the bike path from the New Castle-Yorktown border to Yorktown Heights.
By the mid 1990s the bike path extended all the way from Route 117 in Mount Pleasant to the Putnam County border. The most infamous missing link was a 1.5 mile gap between Route 117 and Eastview, which the county finally paved several years ago with federal and state assistance. This allowed bikers to avoid the dangerous bypass on Route 9A.
Later additions extended the North County Trailway, the South County Trailway (from Elmsford to Yonkers) and the new Putnam County Trailway so that today one can bike—with two small gaps—all the way from the New York City border at Van Cortlandt Park to Carmel, nearly 45 miles in either direction.
Two missing links
There are two gaps in the bike paths that still need to be addressed. One gap is between Warehouse Lane, in Elmsford, and Route 119. This one mile gap lies between the North County Trailway and the South County Trailway. Unfortunately, the gap necessitates bicycling through the industrial area in Elmsford, under Route 287 and across Route 119. This detour is not a pleasant ride, but after arriving at Route 119, there is an uninterrupted 7.5 mile ride to Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers. The Elmsford gap will be eliminated in the next five years during major work on Route 9A or by the county building a boardwalk.
The second gap is between Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers and Redmond Park. The two mile gap exists where the right of way is unpaved and often impossible to navigate. In order to get to the other side bikers must take Mile Square Road. The unpaved gap is due to a political dispute in Yonkers. The political fight over that extension of the bike path was very similar to the debate over the extension in New Castle back in 1989. Some of the residents in Yonkers were afraid that paving the old right of way behind their homes would result in an increase in crime. Others had used the right of way as an extension of their property and wished to continue doing so. A recent change in the representation in the county legislature from that portion of Yonkers has resulted in the county board’s support for paving the gap in the bike path between Redmond Park and Tuckahoe Road in the next few years.
Westchester County: A biker’s paradise
Westchester County is truly one of the best biking venues which I have seen anywhere in the United States or overseas. Not only do we have the North and South County Trailways but we have the Old Croton Aqueduct, which goes from Yonkers to the Croton Gorge over dirt for 27.3 miles. We also have three county maintained parks that allow mountain biking: Graham Hills, right near Pace University on Route 117; Sprain Brook Park off Jackson Avenue in Yonkers; and Blue Mountain Reservation in Peekskill. There are numerous other mountain bike and road bike locations throughout this county and we are lucky that New Castle is located in the middle of all these great bicycling opportunities.
Mark Tulis has been a New Castle councilman and supervisor, and a county legislator. He is Chair of Finance of Westchester Medical Center and a practicing attorney in White Plains. He and his wife, Dr. Elaine Tulis, have lived in Chappaqua for 30 years.
Copyright 2008 NewCastleNOW.org