The Step-Streets Of Bronx

Stair Structure at East 183rd Street and Tiebout Avenue

Spread throughout New York City are streets that are put together entirely of steps, and mostly steep ones.

They were placed on hill sides that were too steep to build a road on. In a rare concession to pedestrians, it was determined to allow them access to the streets denied to motor transportation by building these passage ways.

Many of these step streets – there are dozens – are found in Bronx and upper Manhattan, as well as northeast Staten Island, the hilliest areas of New York City. There are also a few scattered in Bay Ridge and Highland Park sections of Brooklyn.

The longest step street in Bronx is West 230th Street, which connects Riverdale Avenue, Johnson Avenue, Edgehill Avenue until it reaches its destination at Netherland Avenue in the Spuyten Duyvil section of the borough.