Going Coastal

AT the very tip of West 69th Street, at the end of Riverside South Park, an arrangement of half-submerged, half-burned, rusted platforms sits awkwardly in the Hudson River, flanked by rotting pilings. Looming over the debris is a hulking 35-foot-tall gantry, whose gears once lifted and lowered bridge decks from its suspended cables.

The bizarre-looking assemblage, which was once known as Float Bridge No. 4 and which dates to 1911, offers a sharp contrast to the park’s pathways and ornamental grasses, and its presence has not gone unnoticed by local residents.

“It’s junk, and it ought to be removed,” said Jeff Jadin, a retiree who lives in Trump Place, not far from the park, and was staring at the machinery the other day from a bench near the waterfront. “If they have a plan to actually do something with it, that’s fine, but all I see is garbage.”

Since 2001, the city’s Parks Department has in fact had an ambitious $4 million plan to clean up the site and make it a ferry landing. The float bridge, a relic from the days of the New York Central Railroad, which used it to transfer rail cars to and from ferries, would become a landing for ferries, possibly traveling to and from Wall Street.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation does not object to the idea of cleaning and preserving the bridge. But in a letter to the Parks Department last spring, the state agency recommended scrapping the proposal for ferry service, on the ground that the dredging required to create a landing site for the ferry would eliminate precious habitats for aquatic plants and animals.

Adrian Benepe, the parks commissioner, said negotiations were continuing. “We intend to work closely with the D.E.C. on this,” Mr. Benepe said. “We haven’t ruled anything out.”

By Mike Pollack

New York Times