In the struggle between humankind and nature over where the roads will go, step-streets represent a draw. These long flights of stairs offer passage between parallel roads where one is so high above the other that no vehicle could make the climb.
"Because of the lay of the land, you literally could not have a street there," said Leon Heyward, borough commissioner of Department of Transportation.
Of the 130 step-streets in the city, 75 to 80 percent are in the borough, climbing its hills from east to west or vice versa, Heyward said. Morris Heights and Riverdale are particularly rich in these pedestrian passageways, but some of the city's longest are in Highbridge.
Some of the Highbridge step-streets get poor ratings from the people who use them. Most of the complaints are about the garbage that accumulates on the stairs. But, as Rebecca Cartagen, 21, said as she reached the top of one last Wednesday evening, "It's easier than going around the block."
That night, Cartagen was one of dozens of people who climbed the 132 steps interspersed with 11 landings that connect Shakespeare Avenue and Anderson Avenue to the west. At the summit, 168th Street -- a regular, paved road -- continues up the hill on the other side of Anderson, where the grade is gentler.
A section of the handrail above the topmost landing breaks away from the steps as a result of an accident last year when a car heading down 168th crossed Anderson and started headlong down the stairs, said Jackie Lessington, 41.
Tyra Cooper, 8, said she has to climb the stairs carefully because "some steps are higher than the other." Her cousin, Princess Akilah, 10, said they don't hold onto the railing because it's dirty.
Several blocks away, at 168th Street and Shakespeare, 123 steps curve down to Edward L. Grant Highway. Edgar Guerrero, the 39-year-old co-owner of a grocery store at the top of the step-street, said the passageway is well-maintained. "The only problem is, it's too high," Guerrero said. "When they reach the last step, they almost have a heart attack."
Alan Fromberg, a spokesman for the transportation department, which has jurisdiction over some of the step-streets, said the department is aware of the problems with them.
The main reason why the passageways are not maintained better, Fromberg said, is lack of money, but also their maintenance requires skills, such as stone masonry, that are increasingly rare, he said.
The longest step-street in Highbridge cuts right angles down a wooded hill from University Avenue to Sedgwick Avenue. The descent affords a view across the East River to Highbridge Park. Low stone walls border the staircase on either side.
The treads glint with broken glass and only the stumps of lampposts remain, but last Thursday, Hattie and Walter Pindell, fishing poles in hand, took advantage of the staircase's disrepair on their way down to the East River to angle for striped bass, flounder and perch.
Kneeling in a corner where the low parapet took a turn, Hattie Pindell brushed aside the layer of dead leaves to get at the soil under the broken pavement.
"You can find some beautiful fishing worms here," she said.