The Last Steps to the Polo Grounds

On the face of Coogan's Bluff, at about West 158th Street, a long stairway runs down from Edgecombe Avenue toward the Harlem River Drive. A marker on it reads: "The John T. Brush Stairway Presented By The New York Giants." It opened in 1913, named for the team's recently deceased owner, and led fans down to a ticket booth above the Polo Grounds, the ballpark in the hollow below. The story goes that fans without tickets could watch games from the bluff. The Giants left for San Francisco in 1958, the Polo Grounds were torn down in 1964, and public housing towers now stand where the field was. The stairway is the only piece of the old ballpark that remains. In the 2010s it was restored with money from the Giants, Yankees, Mets, Jets and Major League Baseball, reopening in 2014 and rededicated the following year.