Officials say a passerby noticed the section of guardrail missing near West 96th Street and called police. It sparked a massive search with divers and a helicopter searching for possible wreckage around 6:30 a.m.
Diver searched the murky Hudson River water for three hours before finding a car.
Witnesses told police the railing was there yesterday, but they noticed it missing this morning.
Police on the scene say they moved from rescue to recovery. One woman, who lives just one block away from the scene, watched divers all morning.
"I've seen them diving," she said. "It looks like they hooked something onto the car."
It is not clear where the car came from.
What is interesting is that the spot of the broken guardrail is not easily accessible from the Henry Hudson Parkway. So police are trying to figure out how the car got down there in the first place.