Orchard Beach: Where the Tide is Low, the Bugs are Plentiful, and Every Season is the Off-Season
Orchard Beach, the only major public beach in the Bronx, is another place I've meant to check out for awhile now, only to be deterred by its remote location. Like City Island, Orchard Beach requires a ride all the way out to the end of the 6 train line in Pelham Bay Park, then a transfer to a bus (this time, the Bx12 instead of the Bx29).
The good news is that I discovered that City Island and Orchard Beach are basically right next to each other, simply requiring a transfer from one bus to the other, so I was able to explore both on the same day off. And Orchard Beach, nestled between Pelham Bay Park, City Island, New England and the Throgs Neck Bridge, offers some intriguing scenery and the benefits of both a park and a beach. The bad news is that something at Orchard Beach attracts a lot of bugs, and apparently, they find me quite delicious...
I'll add this important caveat before I forget: The Bx12 bus only runs to Orchard Beach between Memorial Day and Labor Day. If you can't get to Orchard Beach in the next two weeks, you'll need a car, or a lot of stamina and a little bit of bravery (O.B. is technically accessible on foot, but requires a hike of several miles through Pelham Bay Park, which was fairly deserted on a Thursday afternoon in early August).
Another word about the Bx12: The spot that serves as the bus terminal for Orchard Beach offers exactly zero view of a beach. And the run-down entranceway doesn't do much to sell O.B. as a place where you'd actually want to get off the bus.
The Bx12 came to a stop and none of the 12 passengers on board, including myself, moved an inch. Then the driver yelled "LAST STOP!"
Yes, this would be a bus terminal.
And this is where we found ourselves when we were discharged from the bus:
A few of us just looked at each other, as if to say, "This is a beach?" But some of the others confidently followed the concrete path away from the mysterious woods, and the bus had already pulled away, so we followed them...
...but not before the mosquitoes saw me and went to town. Seriously, it was the most amazing thing. Now I know what Joba Chamberlain felt like in the 2007 baseball playoffs.*
Bugs aside...once you pass a whole bunch of enormous trees and a spacious picnic area, you'll actually come to--gasp!--a beach. I wasn't until I did my research for this post that I learned that Orchard Beach is a man-made beach, in an area surrounded by marshlands and forest. The brain behind this beach was Robert Moses, master New York City planner, who, in typical Robert Moses fashion, made it as inaccessible to mass transportation as possible.
Orchard Beach is a decent-sized beach, but a tiny fraction of the size of Brooklyn's Coney Island and Queens' Rockaway Beach. It is hard to imagine Orchard Beach accommodating a sizable proportion of the Bronx's population on a scalding-hot weekend summer day (of which we've had approximately two this summer).
But when you take size out of the equation, you definitely get to experience the water at Orchard Beach in a completely different way from any of New York's other beaches. The fact that it is a beach at all is pretty amazing.
I don't quite know what that curious island is. I can only say with certainty that it's not Gilligan's. That is one of a number of little islands you see when you sit on the sand at Orchard Beach.
Again, as on City Island, I kept thinking of Stephen King novels.
I was at Orchard Beach on a Thursday afternoon, around 2:00. The high temperature that day was only 77 degrees and it had been dark and drizzly most of the morning. Still, considering it was the 6th of August, it was pretty surprising to see an almost totally empty beach:
Robert Moses' grand pavilion, not in the greatest of shape.
Moses, champion of the automobile, must have expected the entire Bronx to converge on Orchard Beach...which didn't quite happen on this particular day.
I wonder if any of those storefronts open on the weekend, or at all.
Cold beer only. Those seeking warm beer must take their sun-bathing elsewhere.
If you want food, this is the only game in town. If you've got $10, you can get some fried seafood, if you're feeling particularly brave.
I probably sound pretty cynical about Orchard Beach so far. But I found the solitude and perennial-off-season feel of the place to be a markedly different experience from the other New York City beaches, and I definitely wouldn't mind going back when it really is off-season--if the MTA ever decides to run a bus out there.
Orchard Beach sits on the western end of the Long Island Sound, not the Atlantic Ocean, which partially explains why I got to photograph the lowest tide I've ever seen at a beach.
I love taking pictures of lonely-looking people on the beach--it just seems like such a contradiction, the brightness of a beach with the seeming cheerlessness of being alone--and I got a few opportunities here.
At least that one had another soul to talk to. (Unless it was a wrong number or a telemarketer calling.)
And of course, it wouldn't be a herb_lehman post without a picture of a bridge. If you walk to the southern end of the 1.1-mile long promenade, you get a pretty nice view of the Throgs Neck Bridge, which connects the Bronx and Queens.
Enjoy the rest of your summer, everyone.
*Joba Chamberlain, currently a starting pitcher for the New York Yankees, was probably the most unhittable relief pitcher in baseball in 2007. Pretty much nothing could beat Joba, until he was put on the mound in Game 3 of the Division Series against the Cleveland Indians and was greeted by a swarm of bugs. He promptly gave up the tying run, the Yankees went on to lose the game and the series and Joba's inability to deal with the bugs was seen as the major turning point.
The good news is that I discovered that City Island and Orchard Beach are basically right next to each other, simply requiring a transfer from one bus to the other, so I was able to explore both on the same day off. And Orchard Beach, nestled between Pelham Bay Park, City Island, New England and the Throgs Neck Bridge, offers some intriguing scenery and the benefits of both a park and a beach. The bad news is that something at Orchard Beach attracts a lot of bugs, and apparently, they find me quite delicious...
I'll add this important caveat before I forget: The Bx12 bus only runs to Orchard Beach between Memorial Day and Labor Day. If you can't get to Orchard Beach in the next two weeks, you'll need a car, or a lot of stamina and a little bit of bravery (O.B. is technically accessible on foot, but requires a hike of several miles through Pelham Bay Park, which was fairly deserted on a Thursday afternoon in early August).
Another word about the Bx12: The spot that serves as the bus terminal for Orchard Beach offers exactly zero view of a beach. And the run-down entranceway doesn't do much to sell O.B. as a place where you'd actually want to get off the bus.
The Bx12 came to a stop and none of the 12 passengers on board, including myself, moved an inch. Then the driver yelled "LAST STOP!"
Yes, this would be a bus terminal.
And this is where we found ourselves when we were discharged from the bus:
A few of us just looked at each other, as if to say, "This is a beach?" But some of the others confidently followed the concrete path away from the mysterious woods, and the bus had already pulled away, so we followed them...
...but not before the mosquitoes saw me and went to town. Seriously, it was the most amazing thing. Now I know what Joba Chamberlain felt like in the 2007 baseball playoffs.*
Bugs aside...once you pass a whole bunch of enormous trees and a spacious picnic area, you'll actually come to--gasp!--a beach. I wasn't until I did my research for this post that I learned that Orchard Beach is a man-made beach, in an area surrounded by marshlands and forest. The brain behind this beach was Robert Moses, master New York City planner, who, in typical Robert Moses fashion, made it as inaccessible to mass transportation as possible.
Orchard Beach is a decent-sized beach, but a tiny fraction of the size of Brooklyn's Coney Island and Queens' Rockaway Beach. It is hard to imagine Orchard Beach accommodating a sizable proportion of the Bronx's population on a scalding-hot weekend summer day (of which we've had approximately two this summer).
But when you take size out of the equation, you definitely get to experience the water at Orchard Beach in a completely different way from any of New York's other beaches. The fact that it is a beach at all is pretty amazing.
I don't quite know what that curious island is. I can only say with certainty that it's not Gilligan's. That is one of a number of little islands you see when you sit on the sand at Orchard Beach.
Again, as on City Island, I kept thinking of Stephen King novels.
I was at Orchard Beach on a Thursday afternoon, around 2:00. The high temperature that day was only 77 degrees and it had been dark and drizzly most of the morning. Still, considering it was the 6th of August, it was pretty surprising to see an almost totally empty beach:
Robert Moses' grand pavilion, not in the greatest of shape.
Moses, champion of the automobile, must have expected the entire Bronx to converge on Orchard Beach...which didn't quite happen on this particular day.
I wonder if any of those storefronts open on the weekend, or at all.
Cold beer only. Those seeking warm beer must take their sun-bathing elsewhere.
If you want food, this is the only game in town. If you've got $10, you can get some fried seafood, if you're feeling particularly brave.
I probably sound pretty cynical about Orchard Beach so far. But I found the solitude and perennial-off-season feel of the place to be a markedly different experience from the other New York City beaches, and I definitely wouldn't mind going back when it really is off-season--if the MTA ever decides to run a bus out there.
Orchard Beach sits on the western end of the Long Island Sound, not the Atlantic Ocean, which partially explains why I got to photograph the lowest tide I've ever seen at a beach.
I love taking pictures of lonely-looking people on the beach--it just seems like such a contradiction, the brightness of a beach with the seeming cheerlessness of being alone--and I got a few opportunities here.
At least that one had another soul to talk to. (Unless it was a wrong number or a telemarketer calling.)
And of course, it wouldn't be a herb_lehman post without a picture of a bridge. If you walk to the southern end of the 1.1-mile long promenade, you get a pretty nice view of the Throgs Neck Bridge, which connects the Bronx and Queens.
Enjoy the rest of your summer, everyone.
*Joba Chamberlain, currently a starting pitcher for the New York Yankees, was probably the most unhittable relief pitcher in baseball in 2007. Pretty much nothing could beat Joba, until he was put on the mound in Game 3 of the Division Series against the Cleveland Indians and was greeted by a swarm of bugs. He promptly gave up the tying run, the Yankees went on to lose the game and the series and Joba's inability to deal with the bugs was seen as the major turning point.