New York Roads - Harlem River Dr. - NB/Exit 24

Harlem River Drive NB and Exit 24 ramp


Button copy starting at the Triboro Bridge, where Harlem River Drive begins out of the ashes of FDR Drive. That's because FDR was formerly East River Drive, and the Triboro Bridge interchange is where the Harlem and East Rivers meet.


Overhead at 138th St. at 5th Ave.


That's the Macombs Dam Bridge, Manhattan's gateway to Yankee Stadium. The western half is a swing span for Harlem River traffic.


The Exit 24 ramp, not to mention the freeway continuation as Harlem River "Driveway" (talk about a misnomer), passes under the High Bridge aqueduct. The Alexander Hamilton Bridge, carrying I-95, is in the background, hiding the Washington Bridge. Click on the first photo for a daytime version, showing the elevated SB lanes, courtesy Doug Kerr.


Stay on Harlem River Drive and you'll head under the Hamilton and Washington Bridges. Bonus view east of the I-95/I-87 Highbridge Interchange.


Special, difficult-to-access bonus: Make your way down through Highbridge Park on foot from 175th St., alongside the I-95 NB ramp to Amsterdam Ave., down the hill, past the impromptu skate park, and if you've made all the right turns, you can come down to the arches below the Exit 24 ramps connecting I-95 and FDR Drive. I found many homeless people down there (that I tried to photograph around), so it's not impossible to get to.


The arches are of late 1940s to early 1950s vintage, as the Harlem River Driveway was improved to connect the George Washington Bridge to the Triboro Bridge.


If you're not brave or physically fit enough to climb down to the arches, you can still catch a glimpse looking west from Harlem River Drive at High Bridge.


But if you are able to get down there, you can have this magnificent concert chamber all to yourself.

Switch to the southbound side
Back to Harlem River Drive main page


Back south on FDR Drive
Exit 18 to the Willis Avenue Bridge
Exit 18 to I-87
Up onto Macombs Dam Bridge
Exit 24 to I-95
Up onto Washington Bridge
See more of Manhattan
Back to New York Roads
Back to Roads