“Steps to Nowhere” Redux: In Which Lisanne! Gains National Prominence

Apparently Sheepshead Bay is not the only place with a set of “Steps to Nowhere.” I was surprised to discover just how many “Steps to Nowhere” exist all over the place, but Web Urbanist — which “covers the collective life of our times through the lens of creative visual culture in the beating hearts of our cities” — saw fit to dedicate a comprehensive pictorial to the semi-obscure subject… checkit:

Like a carpenter who makes stairs, I’m always thinking one step ahead. Unfortunately the builders of these 12 strange staircases never arrived at a landing, leaving us to wonder where these spooky steps to nowhere were meant to lead.

And here’s what Web Urbanist wrote about Sheepshead Bay’s “Steps to Nowhere”:

If you’re in a hurry to catch the Long Island Railroad’s Q Train at the Neck Road station on Gravesend Neck Road and East 16th Street, be sure to keep your head up as you ascend the stairs – or your trip may come to a sudden, painful end. The flight of concrete steps appears to run straight into a wall of concrete blocks ala Harry Potter but it wasn’t always that way: these steps served foot traffic to and from the old Sheepshead Bay Race Track from 1893 to 1924.

In retrospect, I still think we have the coolest “Steps to Nowhere,” although props to David Johnson, the amazing “End of the Shoreline” photographer. Those photos almost made my brains fall out, they are so awesome.