This Department is conducted in the interest of Bicyclers, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject. Our maps and tours contain many valuable data kindly supplied from the official maps and road-books of the League of American Wheelmen. Recognizing the value of the work being done by the L.A.W., the Editor will be pleased to furnish subscribers with membership blanks and information so far as possible.
There are so many questions constantly being sent in to us, asking how to get out of New York on a wheel, that, in spite of the fact of maps already published showing the exits from New York, it seems advisable to give, in brief form, a description of the two or three roads which are at all rideable.
There are but three ways to go northward. One runs from 59th Street and Central Park to 110th Street, thence out Seventh Avenue to 116th Street. Here, turning left into St. Nicholas Avenue, it continues to Tenth Avenue, thence crossing the cable and running to Kingsbridge Road. In time we shall be able to run out direct to Kingsbridge over the new bridge, down the long hill beyond 181st Street, but for some time this road has been in a state of construction and repair that was enough to give bicyclers nervous prostration. It has been advisable, therefore, to cross at 181st Street on Washington Bridge, thence following Featherbed Lane to Macomb's Dam Road, to Fordham Landing Road, to Sedgwick Avenue, to Bailey Avenue, to Kingsbridge, and thence out of the city along the Hudson to Yonkers. This is the main road up the Hudson on all routes, long or short. It is the best road from the start, and for many reasons the wheelman is advised to take it even when he is bound southward and eastward. A mile or more on a bicycle is nothing compared to the difficulties of getting over a bad road, and any rider will prefer five good miles to one very bad one. A map of this route is published in Harper's Round Table, No. 810.
This is what renders the other two routes out of New York undesirable as compared with what the Kingsbridge will be when it is completed. The second in order of importance as good road is that which leaves 59th Street and runs through the Park to Seventh Avenue, thence proceeds to the new 155th Street bridge. Cross this and run out Jerome Avenue, through Morrisania to Jerome Park, along the old aqueduct for a bit, thence through South Yonkers, Bronxville, Tuckahoe, to White Plains. The road here is not good in any part. The Avenue is badly macadamized, and here, as elsewhere in this part of New York, the road-bed is torn up with repairs, and new plans and works for the system of roads which some day, when we are all dead and wheeling has gone out of fashion, will make the northern exits of New York the finest in the world. However, this is the road to take if you are bound up the valley or series of valleys lying between the Hudson River ridges and the western ridges of Westchester. Certain routes out this way are rideable. The others are not to be thought of under any circumstances if pleasure is the object in view.
The third exit is further to the east, and runs from 59th Street, as follows: Leave Central Park and run into Fifth Avenue from the Park at the exit where the asphalt begins on the avenue; thence run out to 120th Street, turning west to Morris Avenue, to 124th Street; then, turning back, eastward to Fifth Avenue, to 135th Street, and thence to Madison Avenue, crossing the bridge. After crossing, turn left to Mott Avenue. From this point the run to White Plains is pretty bad work, being over hilly, rough roads, with nothing of interest at hand for the eye to rest on. The route is to 162d Street; thence east and south to 161st Street, turning left into Washington Avenue, to Third Avenue, to Fordham Railroad station, at the left a few blocks on. Crossing the bridge here, turn right into Webster Avenue and run direct to Williamsbridge.