Two weeks ago we traced the Wave Hill–to–Arthur Avenue route through the northwest Bronx. Today the walk goes east and south — through Hunts Point, along the Bronx River, and down to the waterfront at Soundview Park. This is a part of the Bronx that sees very few weekend walkers and holds more than most people expect: a functioning wholesale food market the size of a small city, a restored urban river greenway with herons and native plantings, and a shoreline park where the Bronx River meets the East River in a tidal confluence that’s been the focus of one of the most successful urban environmental restoration projects in the country.
This is not a polished tourist route. It’s a genuine neighborhood walk through working-class South Bronx communities that are in the middle of significant change. That’s exactly what makes it worth doing.
The Route: Hunts Point to Soundview
Stop 1: Hunts Point Produce Market and the Food Distribution Center
The Hunts Point Food Distribution Center is the largest wholesale produce market in the United States, handling a significant share of the fruits and vegetables sold in New York City’s five boroughs. The market operates overnight and early morning for wholesale buyers, but the surrounding streets and the adjacent Hunts Point Riverside Park are open and walkable during the day. The scale of the industrial infrastructure here — massive refrigerated warehouses, truck staging areas, rail sidings — is genuinely impressive from the street. Hunts Point Riverside Park, at the end of Lafayette Avenue, sits at the confluence of the Bronx River and the East River and has been significantly improved over the past decade as part of the broader Bronx River restoration effort.
Stop 2: Concrete Plant Park, Westchester Avenue at the Bronx River
Head north along the Bronx River Greenway to Concrete Plant Park — named for the industrial concrete mixing facility that operated on this site and whose structures have been preserved as public art within the park. The concrete plant’s silos, conveyors, and mixing drums still stand above the riverbank, rusted and graffiti-covered, surrounded by native plantings and river access points. It’s an unexpectedly powerful piece of industrial archaeology in an otherwise residential stretch of the Bronx. The park opened in 2009 and is free; it includes benches, picnic areas, and direct Bronx River access.
Stop 3: Starlight Park, Bronx River Greenway Near 174th Street
Continue north on the Bronx River Greenway to Starlight Park, a recently restored 14-acre park on a former industrial site along the Bronx River. The park includes a reconstructed wetland, native plantings, and new athletic fields. The Bronx River here has been restored to something close to its natural channel after decades of concrete channelization — the restoration effort, led by the Bronx River Alliance, has brought back native fish species including alewives that had been absent from the river for generations. On spring mornings, the restored riparian corridor is busy with birds.
Stop 4: The Bronx River Forest, Southern Section
South of the restored park sections, the Bronx River Greenway passes through a stretch of native forest that has been planted and managed by the Bronx River Alliance over more than 20 years. What was once a corridor of invasive plants and dumped waste is now a functioning urban forest with interpretive signage explaining the restoration process. The Bronx River Alliance offers free guided canoe trips on the river on select weekends in spring and summer — check bronxriver.org for the 2026 schedule. Canoe trips sell out; reserve early.
Stop 5: Soundview Park — The Confluence
The walk ends at Soundview Park, a 205-acre waterfront park on the East River at the mouth of the Bronx River. The park was significantly renovated in recent years with new playgrounds, athletic facilities, and a restored shoreline esplanade. The tidal marsh at the park’s southern end — where the Bronx River meets the East River — is one of the few remaining tidal wetlands in the borough and is actively managed as a wildlife habitat. From the waterfront esplanade, you can see across to Rikers Island, Queens, and, on a clear day, the outline of Long Island. The park is busy on weekends with families from the surrounding Soundview and Clason Point neighborhoods.
The Bronx River Alliance: What’s Been Accomplished
The restoration of the Bronx River is worth understanding in context. The river was, by some accounts, the most polluted urban river in the United States by the late 20th century — used as a dumping ground for industrial waste, its banks covered in concrete, its water largely devoid of aquatic life. Since the Bronx River Alliance was founded in 2001, the community-led restoration effort has removed hundreds of tons of debris, planted native trees and shrubs along its entire South Bronx corridor, restored wetland sections, and brought back fish, birds, and invertebrates that had been absent for decades. The alewife migration — schools of native fish returning to spawn in their ancestral river each spring — is visible from the Greenway in April and May and is considered one of the most significant urban wildlife restoration successes in the country.
Getting There and Around
The 6 train to Hunts Point Avenue is the starting point for this walk. For Soundview Park at the southern end, the 6 train to Soundview Avenue or the Bx39 bus along Soundview Avenue are both options. The Bronx River Greenway is a paved multi-use path for most of its length; sections near Concrete Plant Park and Starlight Park are accessible for cyclists as well as pedestrians.
What You Need to Know
- Bronx River Alliance canoe trips are free but require advance registration at bronxriver.org; spring dates fill quickly.
- Concrete Plant Park is free and open year-round; best visited in morning light.
- Hunts Point Riverside Park is at the end of Lafayette Avenue — small but well-maintained with East River views.
- Soundview Park is 205 acres and free; the restored tidal marsh is at the park’s southern tip.
- The Bronx River Greenway is paved and accessible for most of its length through this route.
- Budget 3–4 hours for the full walk; this is a longer route with fewer coffee stops than the northwest Bronx walk.
- The 6 train provides access to both ends of the route.
For what’s happening in the Bronx this weekend, including Bronx Week events, our Bronx Weekend Preview for May 2–3 has the full calendar. For the borough’s development story, see our Bronx Development Watch on East Fordham Road.
