☞ REMEMBER: The Third Avenue Train Tracks

The exposed cobblestone just north of 125th Street and 12th Avenue was a reminder of Manhattanville's past but much of it has been covered up because of construction.  One of the more interesting elements imbedded in this old West Harlem block was the Third Avenue train tracks which we assumed would be lost when all the digging was finished from the sewage work that was happening in the past year for the new Columbia University campus.

Walking by this section under the viaduct recently, we noticed that most of the block had been paved over but the powers that be have left the train track portions exposed.  Our preference would have been to restore all of the cobblestone (technically Belgian block) roads within Manhattanville's 12th Avenue just like the Meat Packing District downtown. The two areas are similar in history and this part of Harlem could have been the uptown equivalent at one point.  With all that said, at least the tracks have been preserved for the time being and maybe one day, a plan to add back the character to the neighborhood will come about.