This department will, so far as possible, publish maps and descriptions of various bicycle routes in the vicinity of different important cities in America.
The map this week is of New York city. It shows at once just what can be done with a bicycle in New York, what are the best ways of getting out of the city, and where the best streets for wheeling are through its whole length. Most of the black roads are of asphalt pavement, but of course the Riverside Drive, West Seventy-second Street, and the long avenues above the Park, as well as those in the Park, are of macadam. It will pay wheelmen, or boys and girls who expect to be wheelmen or wheelwomen soon, to tear out this page and keep it for reference, for by careful study it will show how to avoid pavement, so far as possible, in getting from one part of the city to another.
To begin with the East Side below Fourteenth Street. The wheelman's object must be to get to Second Avenue as directly as possible. He should then go up Second Avenue, which is asphalted to Twenty-second Street, turn east into Lexington, and go up the latter to Thirty-second Street. Here is the beginning of Murray Hill, and the asphalt stops. He has two blocks to ride on Lexington, and then turning west he has half an avenue block uphill to Park Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street. From here he has almost a clear asphalted or macadamized road out of New York. He turns through to Madison Avenue on any street from Thirty-four to Fortieth, goes down the paved hill between Forty-first and Forty-second streets on Madison Avenue, and then keeps on the latter till he turns through Fifty-eighth Street, crosses Fifth Avenue, and if a dry day enters the Park, or if too soon after rain passes west up Fifty-ninth Street.
Suppose it has rained recently. The bicycler keeps to Fifty-ninth Street till he reaches the Boulevard at Eighth Avenue. He should then take the right side of the Boulevard going out till he reaches Ninety-sixth Street, when he must cross to the left side, owing to the fact that the Boulevard is as yet only paved on the west side from here out. At 108th Street the asphalt stops, and he must either go through that street to the Riverside Drive or keep on the Boulevard, which from here to 125th Street is in bad condition, awaiting asphalt pavement. If he takes the drive he should turn east and go down a very steep but short hill on 122d Street, just opposite Grant's Tomb, into the Boulevard, and as soon as he comes to 125th Street a long and pretty steep hill confronts him. It is not difficult, however, if taken slowly, since the macadam is good, and the hill a steady incline. At 154th Street, which is asphalted, he should turn east to St. Nicholas Avenue, which is better here than below, though the macadam is old. Keeping on St. Nicholas Avenue he soon comes into the Boulevard again at 168th Street, which is here called Kingsbridge Road, and is newly macadamized. By making this slight detour at 155th Street the rider avoids going down the hill back of Trinity Cemetery, and up another bad one on the Boulevard. If he is going up the Hudson he should turn east at 181st Street, through a bad two hundred yards of the latter, cross the Harlem on Washington Bridge, (2), and turn north into Featherbed Lane. This is necessary, because the Kingsbridge Road at the foot of the hill, which begins at 181st Street, is in a very bad condition as far as Spuyten Duyvil.
On the west side of the city down-town it is the rider's first object to get to Eighth Avenue as directly as possible. He then has a clear course out. Starting from the Grand Central Station, a good seven-mile ride is to go, as already described, up the Boulevard to 106th Street, then turn east to the Park, and come back to the Plaza. On a dry day one of the most beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful, ten-mile ride in America is from the Grand Central, as described, to the Plaza, thence through the Park to West Seventy-second Street to Riverside Drive, by Grant's Tomb to Claremont, at the end of the Drive, and back, turning east through 108th Street to Boulevard to 106th Street, thence east to the Park, and so down.
This department is conducted in the interest of Girls and Young Women, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor.
While we are discussing our favorite books, I want to tell you something about the treasury of rich and rare literature which you and I and everybody may be free of in opening the covers of our Bibles.