Switchbacks in the NYC Metro Area

[dgolub]

I'm aware of switchbacks at the following locations in the New York City metropolitan area:

1. Cathedral Parkway just before Riverside Drive in Manhattan (if that one counts since it's so small)
2. Cliff Way in Sea Cliff
3. NJ 5 in Edgewater
4. Rockland CR 33 in Garnerville
5. NY 17A in Monroe
6. US 44 in New Paltz
7. US 44 in Amenia

Does anyone know of any others that I'm missing?

[froggie]

If you're including US 44, might as well include US 6/202 near the Bear Mountain Bridge.

[Pete from Boston]

Many on the Palisades, including the road down to Alpine Boat Basin, the road down to Ross Dock, Mountain Road in Hoboken, Shippen Street in Weekhawken (may be Union City)...

[KEVIN_224]

I assume you mean a road with a hairpin turn? The only one I've been on is with MA Route 2 (Mohawk Trail) in western Massachusetts. I know the NJ Route 495 helix in Weehawken, NJ doesn't quite count in this case.

[cpzilliacus]

If you're including US 44, might as well include US 6/202 near the Bear Mountain Bridge.

Do you really think that qualifies as a switchback?

I am not so sure. 

[hbelkins]

US 6/202 rivals some of the routes in the mountains of southeastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, southwestern West Virginia, east Tennessee and western North Carolina in terms of switchbacks.

[dgolub]

If you're including US 44, might as well include US 6/202 near the Bear Mountain Bridge.

Do you really think that qualifies as a switchback?

I am not so sure.

Probably more so than the one on Cathedral Parkway in Manhattan.  That one is tiny, hence why I was hesitant about including it, but it's in my neighborhood, so I figured I might as well.

[Alps]

I'd say the limit for a switchback is 20 mph, preferably 15, and at least a 130-degree fold. NJ 5 is the only one I know of in NJ, except I think I discovered one on a random road sometime recently and promptly forgot it.
Look up at Spuyten Duyvil, you might qualify one of the roads up there as a hairpin.

[Duke87]

Let's note that the origin of the term "switchback" comes from railroads - where a train reverses direction and then takes the other branch of a switch, in a circumstance such as this one. So, every example posted here is not a "switchback" in the purest sense since vehicles traversing it do not reverse direction. I don't know of any such example that exists on a road, rather than a railroad.

That said, the abandoned connection between the Poughkeepsie Rail Bridge and the New York Central (now Metro-North/Amtrak) Hudson line did feature a pair of switchbacks - see here and here.
(I hate Bing but in this case they show it more clearly than Google because they have a winter photo, so the abandoned trackways are more visible and apparent)

As for roads, I'd say that in order to fudge the use of the term, your curve would have to be of a similarly acute angle. This means that Cathedral Pkwy and Rockland CR 33 don't count.

[Kacie Jane]

Let's note that the origin of the term "switchback" comes from railroads - where a train reverses direction and then takes the other branch of a switch, in a circumstance such as this one. So, every example posted here is not a "switchback" in the purest sense since vehicles traversing it do not reverse direction. I don't know of any such example that exists on a road, rather than a railroad.

That's the origin of the term, yes. But it's been applied to roads and, even more commonly, hiking trails for ages. It's certainly not "fudging" to use the term here even if it's not a reversing maneuver.

[agentsteel53]

I believe La Bajada (National Old Trails Road/US-66/US-85 heading into Bernalillo) had a few legitimate switchbacks where one was expected to drive half of the segments in reverse.

[Pete from Boston]

Lake St., Upper Saddle River, NJ.

http://goo.gl/maps/11DHn

[hotdogPi]

Is CT 37's northern end in the NYC metro area? It's probably counts as a switchback.

[dgolub]

Is CT 37's northern end in the NYC metro area? It's probably counts as a switchback.

Yep, that counts.  Certainly at least as much as US 44.

[Duke87]

So anyways, to contribute in a positive way:

Farms Rd, Stamford, CT
Buttery Rd, New Canaan, CT

[Pete from Boston]

 Another of so many along the Hudson, this time in Highland Falls, NY:

http://goo.gl/maps/DZE6O