Highbridge Facility

The Highbridge Facility, also simply known as Highbridge or High Bridge, is a maintenance facility for the Metro-North Railroad in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, New York City, United States. It is the third stop along the Hudson Line north of Grand Central Terminal, and is for Metro-North employees only, though this stop also formerly served commuter rail passengers and was called High Bridge station. The station is located south of the High Bridge off Depot Place and Exterior Drive, and is accessible from Sedgwick Avenue by way of a viaduct that carries Depot Place over the Major Deegan Expressway, the Hudson Line, and Exterior Drive.

Highbridge
Highbridge Metro-North Facility, as seen from its namesake
LocationDepot Place and Exterior Drive
Bronx, New York
Coordinates40°50′17.5″N 73°55′53″W
Line(s)Hudson Line
Platforms1 side platform (employees only)
Tracks3 mainline plus 11 yard
History
Opened1871
Closed1973
RebuiltDecember 2003 (Employees only)
Electrified700V (DC) third rail
Former services
Preceding station New York Central Railroad Following station
Morris Heights
toward Peekskill
 Hudson Division Sedgewick Avenue
toward New York
Morris Heights
toward Brewster
 Putnam Division Sedgewick Avenue
toward 155th Street

History and use

High Bridge station opened in 1871[1] when the Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad, then owned by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, was extended through the West Bronx and along the Harlem River to connect with the Hudson River Railroad. The segment north of Mott Haven Junction became part of the Hudson Division. With the opening of the line, most passenger trains were rerouted into the new Grand Central Depot via that line along the northeast bank of the Harlem River and the New York and Harlem Rail Road, which was also part of the New York Central system.[2][3] The station served as a transfer point for the Putnam Division of the NYC until service ended on that line in 1958, and the station also served as a change point where electric locomotives were swapped for steam.[3]

The NYCRR's long-distance passenger trains, including the Wolverine, 20th Century Limited, and Lake Shore Limited, picked up their dining cars at High Bridge after leaving Grand Central Terminal, but High Bridge was not an official stop for those trains. The NYCRR also operated a passenger car washing facility on site. High Bridge also had a tractor trailer/freight yard where trucks would load their trailers on to flat cars for "piggyback" service. At one time, the NYCRR also operated transfer bridges that moved freight cars onto barges when the railroad owned its own fleet of tugboats and car floats.

Photographs indicate that trains utilized the Highbridge Station up until at least the 1960s.[4] The passenger station closed due to low ridership in 1973 when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) installed high-level platforms at stations in the Bronx. The MTA later demolished the station structure.[1]

Highbridge's freight yard now serves as a maintenance facility for the Metro-North Railroad. In 1998, it was connected to the Oak Point Link via a low viaduct along the east bank of the Harlem River leading to the Harlem River Yards and Oak Point Yard, both of which are freight yards originally owned by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.

A scene in the movie Funny Girl shows Barbra Streisand riding one of the NYCRR tugs.[5]

Platform and track configuration
1 ■ Hudson Line Passing track
2 ■ Hudson Line Passing track
4 ■ Hudson Line Passing track, no platform here

References
  1. Twomey, Bill (2002). South Bronx. Arcadia Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 9780738510200.
  2. Bronx Railroad Stations (Brennan's Abandoned Stations web-site)
  3. Brian Solomon with Mike Schafer, Railroad Color History: New York Central Railroad (Andover Junction Productions, 1999) at p. 61
  4. June 1961 Photo by Ed Davis Senior; Collection of David Pirman (WorldNYCSubway.org)
  5. Funny Girl; 1968 (On The Set of New York)

Media related to Highbridge Yard and Facility at Wikimedia Commons

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