Routes to the GWB

There are a number of ways to get from northern Bergen county to the George Washington Bridge. While there are minor variations, there are also some broad groupings. I used the ridewithgps website to generate a few different routes from the intersection of County Road and Closter Dock Road to the GWB.

First I considered the straightforward route: straight up Closter Dock Road to 9W. This is 9.3 miles and 567 feet of climbing. It's a climb of 2 miles to 9W of 406 feet and that's it for climbing, the rest is modest rolling hills.

The next route option is
Piermont Road - Walnut - Pershing, which is a distance of 9.3 miles with elevation gain of 508 ft.

At about mile 5.2, one starts climbing the Palisades ridge for 1 mile gaining 300 feet. That's an average grade of 5.8% though there's a .1 mile steep section.

Churchill Road in Englewood Cliffs is a well-known NYC area climb. I considered aroute including it as well. It is 9.2 miles and 469 feet of climbing.

Over 1.1 miles about 260 feet elevation gain. So it's not as hard as it seems climbing Churchill.

The shortest route is lesser-known. At 8.4 miles and 437 feet of climbing, the route via Myrtle Ave is an example of how numbers can be deceptive: coming off Oak Trail road is a left turn and immediate climb up the hill on Myrtle.

The good part is that you coast down the other side of that hill and then a small rise is just enough to kill your momentum and let you roll to a stop at the intersection with US 9W.

Going up Van Nostrand to Jones Road is the least climbing with 420 feet gained over 9.3 miles.