The southernmost tip of the Bronx is where Mott Haven and Port Morris meet the Harlem and East rivers, a grid of brick tenements, warehouses, rail yards and highway viaducts just across the water from Manhattan and Randall's Island. The area takes its name from Jordan Mott, an inventor who opened an iron works here in the 1840s, and the factories that followed made the South Bronx an industrial district for generations.
Mott Haven became a symbol of urban decline in the 1970s, when fires and abandonment swept through the South Bronx, and it was also part of the borough where hip hop was born at block parties of that era. Today it is changing fast, with new apartment buildings, galleries and restaurants along the waterfront, while many long-time residents worry about rising rents. The historic district around Alexander Avenue has handsome rows of nineteenth-century brownstones and churches, and the streets have a lively, Latin flavour, with music, bodegas and food carts.
The riding in is pure city. The Major Deegan Expressway, the Bruckner and the approaches to the Third Avenue, Willis Avenue and Triborough bridges cross here in a tangle of ramps and viaducts, with heavy trucks heading to the markets at Hunts Point, potholes, and fast lane changes. Some bridges are free and others charge tolls, collected electronically. It is noisy and hectic, and after a day in the Appalachian hills or the Catskill gorges it will feel like riding into a beehive.
Fuel, food and coffee are easy to find, and the neighbourhood's restaurants serve Puerto Rican, Dominican and Mexican food at fair prices. A plate of rice, beans and roast pork is the right meal after a long ride.
To clear your head before parking up, Randall's Island is just across a footbridge or a short ride away, with parks, sports fields and paths along the river where you can watch the sun set behind Manhattan. From here, every route into the city or home is close, and you have the satisfaction of having ridden from the mountains to the middle of one of the world's great cities in a single day.