See New York City’s Seasons— By Elevated Subway!

While Manhattanites usually look at the subways as holes in the ground, they do come out of the ground, mostly in the other boroughs, but there is a line in Upper Manhattan that thunders above the ground, to the Upper Bronx. If you wish to go farther afield, riding to Rockaway Beach, Coney Island, Tottenville, and even Newark, NJ, make for an interesting afternoon trip on a sunny day.

Should you wish to stay in New York County, the 1 train rises above Broadway at 122nd Street to the Harlem River at Marble Hill, with a few tunneled sections in between. If it’s the forest you wish, exit at the Dyckman Street station and walk west to 196-acre Inwood Hill Park, part of which rises to almost 400 feet above sea level and offers the last remaining old-growth forest in Manhattan. Prefer to stay at ground level? Stroll alongside the Hudson to Manhattan’s northwestern tip, and gaze up and down the mighty river. Stay on the 1 above Broadway and exit at 242nd Street to visit Van Cortlandt Park. Woodlands and wetlands make for a perfect late-fall stroll on its 20 miles of hiking trails.

An honorary West Side elevated ride? Hop on the M5 bus at Broadway and 72nd Street and ride to Broadway and 135th Street. Grand old apartment buildings on your right, Riverside Park and the Hudson River on your left. If you are so inclined, alight at any of the stops along there and walk through Riverside Park.

A visit there never gets old.

If the sea is on your mind, the B express train to Brighton Beach has the trifecta of being partially in an open cut, and on an elevated structure. To boot, it’s an express train. When you get to the last stop, walk down the stairs, and you are in a neighborhood more Odessa than Ocean Parkway. A few more blocks, and you are standing by the Atlantic Ocean.

If you need another trip to the Atlantic, everyone wants to “hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach.” Beach-116th Street terminal is reachable by A train, with a change of trains at Broad Channel. Another express, it virtually soars over Queens rooftops, passes Aqueduct Racetrack and runs through the middle of Jamaica Bay, past JFK airport. Once you leave the subway, you can walk on the close-by 5-1/2-mile-long Rockaway Boardwalk, viewing the mighty Atlantic Ocean.

Need a sail and a rail? The Staten Island Ferry at South Ferry will take you to St. George at the north end of the borough. From there, it’s a 14-mile journey southwest to Tottenville, open to the elements. The ride mixes the landscape—city congestion, suburbia and communities of older houses on this modern subway ride (brand-new R211 subway cars), uniquely detached from the ones in the other four boroughs. Hop off at the Great Kills station for a walk to Great Kills Park and the Gateway National Recreation Area.

If you want to visit Spain and/or Portugal on the really cheap, there’s the Port Authority Trans-Hudson to Penn Station in Newark. Riding from the PATH’s World Trade Center Terminal, once the train surfaces under the New Jersey Turnpike, it’s a transit through part of the 8,400 acres of the New Jersey Meadowlands. The ride, 20 minutes or so, yields industrial clutter mixed in through marshlands. A block and a half away from the station in Newark is the Ironbound neighborhood, where a variety of dining experiences at different price points are clustered along East Ferry Street, less expensive than comparable restaurants in NYC. Another plus? The Newark Museum of Art, an interesting and unusual repository, so close to NYC.

An East Bronx ride on the upper end of the 5 train will whisk you from the 180th Street station to the Eastchester station four miles northeast, all above ground. The magic of this ride is its provenance; it was part of the ill-fated New York, Westchester, and Boston Railway line to Port Chester, NY, from the Bronx. Opened in May 1912, the line was abandoned in 1937 by the NYW&B. Four years later, it became part of the subway system. The five stations on the line were built by the original owner, architectural gems all. The end of the line provides a gateway to Pelham Bay Park, the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum, and City Island, a slice of New England in the five boroughs.

Before you undergo these trips and other fun subway rides of your choosing, investigate the end-point neighborhoods, each one with a diverse array of unusual stores and restaurants; your visitors will most certainly be amazed at the choices available. Above all, check the websites of where you wish to go, as far as closings during the week and opening hours. During the short nights this time of year, getting out earlier is preferable.

Ride on the “El” and see New York!