Botanical Garden station (also known as Botanical Garden–East 200th Street station) is a

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...

stop on the

Metro-North Railroad Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a New York State public benefit corporations, public authority of the U.S. state of New Yor ...

Harlem Line The Metro-North Railroad Harlem Line, originally chartered as the New York and Harlem Railroad, is an commuter rail line running north from New York City to Wassaic, in eastern Dutchess County. The lower from Grand Central Terminal to Southea ...

, serving the Bedford Park section of

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It is from

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

and travel time there is approximately 22 minutes. The station is located just north of the intersection of Southern Boulevard and Bedford Park Boulevard (East 200th Street) adjacent to northern Bronx Park and the New York Botanical Garden. The station is located in the Zone 2 Metro-North fare zone.

History

Prior to the establishment of the Botanical Garden station, its location was the former site of Bedford Park station, a railroad station that connected to a privately owned one-mile spur leading west to the Jerome Park Racetrack, which contained its own station of the same name. The racetrack was closed on October 4, 1894 to make way for the installation of the

Jerome Park Reservoir The Jerome Park Reservoir is a reservoir located in Jerome Park, a neighborhood in the North Bronx, New York City. The reservoir is surrounded by DeWitt Clinton High School, the Bronx High School of Science, Lehman College, and Walton High Schoo ...

, and the spur was used for construction of the reservoir until 1906. Like the site for which it was named, Botanical Garden station originates back to the 1890s, although it originally had structures on both sides of the tracks. The structure that serves the gardens itself on the north side of the tracks still exists, while the old station house on the southbound platforms was torn down. Botanical Gardens station was south of a derailment on February 16, 1907 that resulted in 20 deaths and 150 injuries. This was one day after New York Central Railroad electrified the Harlem Line in reaction to being chastised in the press after the Park Avenue Tunnel accident of 1902. Some sources have mistakenly referred to the site of the crash as being at Woodlawn station. From 1920 to 1973, there was also a connection to the

200th Street station The 200th Street station was a local station on the demolished IRT Third Avenue Line in the Bronx, New York City, near the New York Botanical Garden. The station was opened on October 4, 1920, and had three tracks and two side platform A sid ...

along the IRT Third Avenue Line over the intersection of Webster Avenue and Bedford Park Boulevard just southwest of the station. As with many NYCRR stations in the Bronx, the station became a

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania Railroad ...

station once the NYC &

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

s merged in 1968. Penn Central's continuous financial despair throughout the 1970s forced them to turn over their commuter service to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Sometime between 1975 and 1981, MTA demolished the southbound station house and replaced it with aluminum and Plexiglas bus shelters. The station and the railroad were turned over to

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

in 1976, and eventually became part of the MTA's Metro-North Railroad in 1983.

Station layout

The station has two high-level

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

s, each eight cars long.

References

External links

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Station from Google Maps Street ViewPlatforms from Google Maps Street ViewOverpass from Google Maps Street View
{{DEFAULTSORT:Botanical Garden (Metro-North Station) Metro-North Railroad stations in New York City Former New York Central Railroad stations Railway stations in the Bronx Bedford Park, Bronx