Lauren & I went to Staten Island on Labor Day to take some photos. We wanted to explore what many people consider to be the red-headed stepchild of all the NYC boroughs to see what all the fuss (or lack thereof) was about.
Our first stop was in the Fort Wadsworth section of Staten Island, right by the Verrazano Bridge. We found a narrow & weedy path down to the waters edge (along which we saw 2 old cars that seem to have become one with the earth - pretty rad) but due to the numerous scary-ass-we’re-on-the-borough-with-the-highest-amount-of-West-Nile-cases mosquitoes we were swatting away from our bare arms, we had to abandon our plans.
A little discouraged, we just drove & talked for a while. We reached Port Richmond, not paying too much attention to where were were going, when Lauren noticed an elevated train platform. At first glance I didn’t think too much about it, (the Staten Island train - all one of them - isn’t very exciting to me since I ride the train every day) but Lauren pointed out that there were trees growing on the tracks. Lo & behold, Staten Island’s own Highline! Actually it’s the North Shore Branch of the Staten Island Railway, shut down since 1953.
We parked & walked under the tracks on the street & saw that the entire thing was fenced in. We could see some garbage scattered around, but no people & (thankfully) no dogs. We also saw a staircase leading to the platform that looked promising. Luckily for us there was a hole in the fence right around the corner from where we were, so after making a lot of noise to be sure there were no animals inside, we climbed in. It was great - smelly, filthy, totally creepy, but really fantastic. Lots of interesting graffiti, lots of scary but cool-looking shadows. There was evidence that people having slept there, but no one was around. Unfortunately the staircase was locked up tight, so no getting onto the platform. We stayed in there for about 20 minutes taking photos & getting bitten by more mosquitoes.
Once we were out in the open, we were still determined to get up to the platform, so we followed the tracks in my car to find another way. We were driving for about 10 minutes when we found a section that was just tracks, no passenger platform, but we didn’t care - right next to it was a small hill that had a path leading up to the tracks. When we got to the top we felt very isolated, with the walls of the railway reaching over our heads and forests of weeds on either end. It was a lot cleaner than I thought it would be, not too much trash. The tracks looked pretty ancient and were over-grown with weeds, which were so thick on either end there was no chance of walking down the tracks to a platform. Oh, well. We still got some really good shots, including this awesome one by Lauren of us horsing around.
I was pleasantly surprised with our day on Staten Island - I got some really good shots (as did Lauren - see her shots here) and we really only covered about 1/3rd of the island. What really surprised me, though, was how surprised I was at everything we found considering I LIVED on Staten Island for a year & a half during college. I must have been walking around with my eyes closed. I guess I’m just not the same person that I was 7 years ago - I look at things a lot differently now.
I’m not done trying to get on that railway platform, plus I’d really like to see the rest of the island (to see what other surprises it has) so we’ll be back.
