Little Orphan Avenues: Ave Y and Ave Z in Bath Beach

On a recent trip, I went to fix out some of the last streets I need to walk in Bath Beach, which runs south to Bay 50th Street. I don't know where the boundary would or should be. At this point, below Bay 50th, I wasn't in Coney Island yet, so the only other thing you might call it is Gravesend. The streets align with Gravesend, but the train yard slices these streets away from the rest.

Basically, a bunch of streets and avenues are orphaned, cut off from the rest of their kind.

In short, my trip took me up and down one Bay street, four West streets (plus part of Stillwell Ave), two lettered avenues, a piece of Shore Parkway, and a short "place". I found that a couple streets listed on Google Maps do not exist, or they are private roads, even if they have names.  The creepiest street, even in the middle of the day, was West 13th Street. It extends for one block in either direction from Ave Z, ending in Dead Ends in each direction. It is extremely isolated, but busy with trucks. (I counted eight cement mixers spinning on one lot.)

Okay, here are today's pictures (and apologies for the appearance while I get used to blogger's new "more friendly" user interface):

I've driven down Bay 50th Street many times. I've passed this intersection, and found it curious that a piece of Ave Y made it all the way over to the edge of Bath Beach, on the far side of the train yards. I'd never turned the corner to see where it went.

And now I know. It doesn't go anywhere! This picture is the entire length of Ave Y. There's a triangular plot of land, Private Anthony Catanzaro Square, bordered by Bay 50th and West 16th Streets. That's all of it. If you check Google maps, it doesn't even label it as Ave Y. (It does label a path just off of Stillwell Ave as Ave Y, but it doesn't exist. Or, if it does, it's behind a locked fence.)

Note: Private First Class Anthony Catanzaro was killed in the service of the country during World War II, when the ship he was on was torpedoed by the Germans.

When you get down to Cropsey Ave, the roadway bends to the left, which brings you to Ave Z, which is also orphaned, but at least stretches for a few blocks. The stairs bring you up to the rest of Cropsey Ave. There is no footpath down the roadway.

As you can see, Ave Z goes on for four blocks, connecting with and cross Stillwell Ave. It was a quiet place to walk. It's residential, but not a lot of people.

Going down West 16th Street, there is a two block stretch of Shore Parkway, which pretty much requires you to walk in the street. Shore Parkway gets broken up numerous times along its run, so I wouldn't call it "orphaned" in the way I would Ave Z.  (Of course, Ave Z is actually longer here, so maybe I should.)

And, finally, the saddest picture I took. Sad, because I feel sorry for any out-of-towners who made reservations, and ended up at the edge of nowhere. I took a peek at the parking lot. I didn't see an outlet to Stillwell Ave, so the wary traveler would have to negotiate whatever heavy equipment is out on West 13th Street. If you are walking, it's even worse. You have to walk back up to Ave Z, and then exit to Stillwell. At that point, you could either take a long walk back to Bay 50th Street, or a longer walk to Coney Island. The thing is, if you picked this place, you probably picked it because you wanted to be close to Coney Island. I wouldn't want to walk back here in the evening after a day at the beach. Call a cab.