Cross Bronx 'Spressway Dangers

[other dog]

A man was driving his Terex Titan across the cross bronx expressway the other day and pulled over on the shoulder to walk to a nearby diner to get a cup of coffee. When he returned to his truck about 5 minutes later he found it sitting on blocks with the tires, wheels, and stereo system stolen.

[1958 F.W.D.]

Nope. Not the CBE. If it was, ANY removable metal would have dissappeared too.

[mack mhe9]

he must of had some bitchen 20's on there for them to go through all that work.

[vision386]

I actually saw something like that firsthand once,years ago,when i was an hourly driver for Atlas,i was going to Conn. with a delivery,i saw 2 women in a new (at the time) Corvette in the line for the tollbooth at the GWB,they were next to me,and the car was overheating. I saw them in the mirror pull over just north of the bridge,i assume to see what was wrong. later that day when i came back,the burned out,stripped (and i mean stripped!) hulk of the car was being towed away! all in broad daylight,in the span of about 4 hours! never understood how all that could go un-noticed in the middle of the day,don't see near as many abandoned/stripped cars on the Cross-Bronx as i used too...............................Mark

[2stacksuperdog]

They had that on 60 minutes a couple years ago. the cops would just watch because 2 guys against 6 or7 wouldn't work out to good. they video taped the whole ting of the little crane popping out of the van and taking the motor while everything else was stolen. Thats probably the longest 20 mile stretch of highway there is.

[1958 F.W.D.]

My wife used to use that stretch all the time to get to Conn. I tried for years to get her to use the Throgs Neck and go up that way but she's one of those women who used to be afraid to try new directions. I always made sure she had the phone number to a buddy's firehouse- Rescue 3, located at 176th & Park....Told her if she ever broke down the FIRST phone call was to the firehouse, THEN to me.

Now she'll go anywhere with a GPS unit and takes the throgs neck.

[Timothy Maikshilo]

Coming back from NYC heading back to Ct. I saw a bright red Trans Am in the reeds with flames coming out the windows. Couldn't believe my eyes. Had a guy in my truck once too when delivering in Brooklyn. When out from the dock to get my lunch and was surprised to see this guy sitting in my truck then it dawned on me he was stealing my stuff. I told him get out and he said ok man no problem and didn't get to touch anything. He was well dressed and clean, not the type I thought I'd see in that situation. He got in through the vent window but didn't break anything. After that I payed more attention.

[41chevy]

They were fast before the age of battery powered tools, think how quick they are now! Got off to pick up 4 cars at the AVIS yard in Maspeth. I passed a guy walking away from his VW Bug off the LIE eit, came back past it in about 45 minutes and it literally was a shell.

Hunts Point night rules were don't stop for anything, don't slow down and if the way was blocked with a stripped shell of a car either go around if of blow it out of the way. The little weasels would slow you down enough to get up on the trailer and unload as much as they could while you were rolling. If you came to a stop it was Custers last stand.

Some good spots in the city. . .CBE , the Hunts Point 500 , and the Alphabet City shuffle. . . don't miss any of that.

[other dog]

That's one reason i'd be terrified to have to go to N.Y. now. And we have some drivers that love it. I remember seeing stripped out cars along the cross bronx in the 80's, and i'd always think to myself "just what do you do if you happen to break down?..you've got to go somewhere for help (pre-cell phone days!). And as soon as you leave your vehicle it's a goner- just what the hell do you do?".

[Green Dash]

They were fast before the age of battery powered tools, think how quick they are now! Got off to pick up 4 cars at the AVIS yard in Maspeth. I passed a guy walking away from his VW Bug off the LIE eit, came back past it in about 45 minutes and it literally was a shell.

Hunts Point night rules were don't stop for anything, don't slow down and if the way was blocked with a stripped shell of a car either go around if of blow it out of the way. The little weasels would slow you down enough to get up on the trailer and unload as much as they could while you were rolling. If you came to a stop it was Custers last stand.

Some good spots in the city. . .CBE , the Hunts Point 500 , and the Alphabet City shuffle. . . don't miss any of that.

My dad used to tell me stories of the things he's seen around where he worked in Hunts Point but it was something you had to see to believe. He would exit the CBE at Sheridan Expwy to get to Hunts Point Ave. After exiting the Sheridan the street runs under the EL for a few blocks. He was stopped at the light at Westchester Ave in the middle of the night and called me out of the bunk to show me something. A group of kids were dragging the shell of a car into the middle of the street ahead of him. Fortunately the street and sidewalks were wide enough to get mostly around it but he ran over the front end with his trailer tires. He eneded up with 2 flat tires on the trailer but was able to keep moving and get back to his shop. Being raised on the Island I thought this was normal behavior in "the city" and it wasn't until I was older that I realized how bad things were back then.

[bullhusk]

Rudy put an end to a lot of that shit when he was in office! We sure could use a guy like Rudy today in the Whitehouse! But instead we got a guy and his crew just like the ones steelin stripin the cars on the CBX in office!!!

BULLHUSK

[2stacksuperdog]

My grandfather was going through the tunnel to hunts point with his LJ and a guy jumped on the truck while they were driving and was hanging on through the window. My grandfather grabbed a hammer and whacked both hands. Guy fell off didn't know and didn't care if they guy went under the tires

[NoClueJoe66]

I've never been through the Bronx or anything like that and after these stories, I'm not sure I ever want to go

[hatcity]

Ya gotta do it joe. Just like marriage-Everyone should do it,just for the experience

[RFCDrum]

We were running out of Tilcon over there and the other recycling place just down from Hunts Point. Wasn't too bad now but it also wasn't at night.

Cheers, Rob

[NoClueJoe66]

Ya gotta do it joe. Just like marriage-Everyone should do it,just for the experience

I'm not gonna say that i would't, always up for a new adventure....just wouldn't wanna go through there hauling boats, that would be the time I would break down. Well i'm on my second marriage so it seems i don't learn very well from all of my experiences...lol

[2stacksuperdog]

We brought an oil truck down to the ports on our superdog and lowboy. That was fun on a 100 degree Thursday with no A/C sitting in traffic with all the smog under the buildings. Got down to the port and they wouldn't let us offload the truck cause we didn't have enough copies of the paperwork. Anyways finally the night manager let us get the truck off at 6 pm and we got stuck in more traffic on way back. It was about 9 pm when we hit CT border. booked it back at about 85mph and still didn't get back to the yard until 11pm and thats after starting at 6 AM. Didn't see any burnt out cars but the was enough of a ride to make me never want to go through there again.

[JTFormula]

I remember in the early 80's going to the Bronx zoo with family and passing by a Datsun 280z that broke down (overheated) on the Cross Bronx. When we went back home that little Z was just a carcass. We had a 75 Z so I felt sorry for the guy.

Traffic sucks all around NYC. I had to go to Massapequa last week to drop off a 69 GTO I sold and brought back a 56 Chevy Nomad. Took 2 hours to go from exit 28 on the LIE thru the BQE the Gowanus and into Staten Island. Did 5 mph the whole time. And it cost $122 to cross two damn bridges in the dually with our enclosed trailer. $75 if you run 5 axles. Freaken insane!

[Red Rover]

I was driving for Munson Transportation in 1990 and as I approached the GWB there was a fairly new Frieghtliner conventional with a reefer parked in a little pulloff just before the bridge. The left front tire was flat, it was the only wheel left on the tractor and trailer, also missing were the hood , the engine, the reefer unit and, of course ,the trailer was empty.

[vision386]

I've never been through the Bronx or anything like that and after these stories, I'm not sure I ever want to go

LOL! wheres your sense of adventure? you oughta' come up an take a ride with me sometime! maybe even learn a new word or two!.....................................Mark

[NoClueJoe66]

As long as your driving Mark I'm all good.....always looking for new words that i can use the next time i go through Atlanta

[NoClueJoe66]

Oh and my sense of adventure usually stops on I-81 @ the I-84 split.....lmao

[vision386]

As long as your driving Mark I'm all good.....always looking for new words that i can use the next time i go through Atlanta

I gotta agree! Atlanta is a damn nightmare! Charlotte is getting almost as bad! that "spaghetti junction" north of ATL is one of the worst designed interchanges i have ever seen! you better have a damn good idea where you want to end up before you start!..........Mark

[NoClueJoe66]

Yea no doubt..When i go to Buford,Ga i run 411s out of loudon then hit 75 south for about 3 miles then take hwy 20 east which puts me right at the dealers door.......Sure beats the hell out of 285,85 and 985.....thats a damn joke from beginning to end,but it could be worse though

[41chevy]

Heres some of the good and bad of the Bronx in the 70's.

Mott Haven by the Bruckner.

CBE exit.

Schuylerville "races" on Waterbury Ave. Mutt Brothers Cuda won $8,000.00 off of Plainview Fords T Bolt Fairlane