A harrowing tour of Southwest Philly

Yesterday was an awesome day for a bike ride, so after a quasi interview I had in Haverford I met up with my friend Zack who recently moved to West Philly. We decided to bike on a tour of Southwest Philly.  We were debating whether or not to bike around the airport but since it was only in the low 50s, going to cloudy later and still windy we opted for another route.  We ended up riding around for almost two hours!  The route is below along with the stats:

http://www.dailymile.com/people/Jerome9883/entries/5919396

Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
21.4	117	11.0	1,397

Zack and I ended up at such southwest Philly sites such as Bartram’s Gardens, the Heinz Wildlife Refuge and Mt. Moriah Cemetery.  Much like my ride a week ago, there is a lot to digest and I took probably too many pictures.  Zack can confirm this as I stopped several times without warning.  I’m only blogging about half of the ride today.  Below is the route that I’m blogging about. 

To begin the ride I biked to Zack’s new West Philly abode, across the ominous and ever windy Grey’s Ferry Bridge; suppose it’s better than a ferry.  After eating some food and hanging out with the cats we started by heading southwest along Springfield Ave and then turned left on 54^th headed towards Bartram’s Gardens.  After one of the first of many stressful crossings of trolley tracks and large streets on this ride we ended up in the gardens.

Bartram’s Gardens is a fairly important historical site in Philadelphia.  The gardens are located along the banks of Schuylkill River, one of the few areas south of Center City where a person can go to the river’s edge.  However, the site is also tucked behind the massive Lindbergh Ave, train tracks, and some rough PHA housing, which currently hampers access. 

The site is the oldest living botanical garden in this hemisphere, and was home to John Bartram who was a well-known botanist in his day, his day being the early 18^th century.  He collected seeds and plants from all over the world and brought them back to his Schuylkill location.  In the 1720s he designed and built his house and original garden, both of which still stand. 

Zack and I spent some time wandering around the garden trying to find the elusive Ginkgo Biloboa tree.  It’s claimed that it’s the last of three original trees introduced to the US, it dates from 1785.   I was convinced that it blew down in the really large windstorm we had last year and since we never found it I’m going to assume I was right.  Jeremy – 1, History – 0, sadness.  Anyway in our hunt we did find this bush of sticks (see below).  According to the sign it was named after Ben Franklin (shocked face), Franklina, and there are no remaining ones in the wild.  In fact the last one in the wild was seen in 1803 and all Franklinas grown today are direct descendants of the Bartram’s plant

Two other cool parts of Bartram’s Gardens:  they have amazing skyline views and there were signs of spring.

After we left Bartram’s Gardens we began to bike down Elmwood and lo and behold, more trailer sized rowhouses!! Outside of their South Philly habitat.  Maybe, unlike the Franklina, they are multiplying and they are retaking the city habitat. I’m obsessed with these tiny places. They’re so silly looking. 

I’ve taken the Lindbergh Ave. route to Heinz before, and as we still weren’t sure if we wanted to go around the airport or not, we took one of the most industrial, auto-centric routes I’ve ever taken; 61^st street , left on Passyunk which turns into Essington and then right on Bartram Ave.  These are all roads  that are at least 5 lanes of traffic, most of the time more.  We chose this route because Google told us there were bike lanes on them.  Well, there were, so good job Google, but bike lanes do not equal bike friendly.  Especially when you find the regions auto salvage yards, there were so many car doors, bumpers and tires. 

In amongst all the salvage yards were an astounding number of gentleman’s clubs.  To quote my riding buddy “This area is full of car parts and lady parts” it was true.  We decided that the following had to be the classiest of these establishments. 

As we biked on we lost our bike lane for a bit which was a little nerve racking, and used cars and ladies turned began to turn into new cars and no ladies.   There were so many car dealerships.  Lucky for us Essington Ave had a service lane. While the main part of Essington Ave has been recently paved and has a new bike lane we chose the route with less chance of becoming road kill.  It also gave us an opportunity to find the Simeone Auto Museum.  It’s mysterious, we never did find it.  But the sign sure helps. 

When we turned onto Bartram Ave. we were pleasantly surprised by such a large shoulder.  Until we realized that the cars had to turn right and then there was no shoulder.  As well as on the other side of the intersection, leaving us with a  strip of pavement about 2 feet wide to either not crash into a rather large curb or get creamed.   

However at one of these intersections (Bartram and Island Avenues) we found what seems like a shanty town. There were sheds that were made of corrugated metal and seemed to be stacked as well as a drunk’s house of cards. Even if you look at the Google satellite image it looks like a shanty town, in amongst large office buildings and freeways.  It turns out that after some research the town is actually Eastwick’s Common Ground community garden, which has been a community garden for over 30 years. It’s over 7 acres and 160 lots. Naturally, the article I found about it were about how the airport expansion is threatening to take over the land and they’re lease is up in June. 

That is all for today.  At a later date I’ll blog about the wildlife refuge and the awesome cemetery we found.