The abandoned rail line known as the "Bronx Swamp" is seen in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx in New York. RICHARD B. LEVINE/Newscom
By Richard Levine and Frances Roberts
You’d never know it but New York City has places that are untouched by the urban existence or have gone back to their natural habitats.
One of these is the charmingly named Bronx Swamp, an abandoned railroad right of way apparently forgotten by everyone except for the Bronx citizens that got to experience nature in the form of standing water and mosquitos. The city drained the swamp and removed tons of trash but the subterranean railroad cut is in limbo since no one is sure who owns it.
Debris and artifacts wash up on the beach of Barren Island in Dead Horse Bay in the Gateway National Recreation Area in Brooklyn in New York. RICHARD B. LEVINE/Newscom
Dead Horse Bay got it’s name because it was originally the site of horse rendering plants. It’s about as far into the middle of nowhere you can get in the city. After a landfill was put in to connect the horse rendering island to the rest of the world, the cap on the landfill broke and to this day the detritus used as fill continues to wash up. Wandering the sandy beach you can beach comb for toilets, antique bricks, crockery and glass bottles, some of which are amazingly unbroken.
Bronx middle school students volunteer their time in Bronx Park in New York. FRANCES M. ROBERTS/Newscom
Finally you never know. The Bronx River meanders through the urban borough and is now a park. Popular with kayakers, it’s also a bicycle paradise and provides a living laboratory for kids to learn about ecology and the environment.
See more photos showing a different side of New York in the Levine Roberts collection on Newscom. Or you can keep reading with these other posts:
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Tags: bronx, bronx swamp, dead horse bay, levine roberts photography, new york