Goldens Bridge station is a

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

stop on the Metro-North Railroad's

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 Sou ...

, located in Lewisboro, New York. It is from Grand Central Terminal and the average travel time to Grand Central is one hour, nine minutes. The station is located adjacent to

Interstate 684 Interstate 684 (I-684) is a north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in the state of New York in the United States. There is also a short portion in Connecticut with no junctions. The highway connects I-84 with I-287 and the Hutchinson ...

and is accessible to northbound travelers via Exit 6A (Routes 22/ 138). The station is the northernmost station in the Zone 6 Metro-North fare zone. Parking lots are available on both sides of the interstate; a parking permit or a daily fee is required. Metered parking fills up around 7:30 every morning on business days. Free parking is available on weekends and holidays. From trains in the vicinity of the station, it is possible to see the historic

Bridge L-158 Bridge L-158 is a disused railroad bridge over Muscoot Reservoir near Goldens Bridge, New York, United States. Built to carry New York Central Railroad traffic over Rondout Creek near Kingston, it was moved to its current location in 1904. In 1 ...

over Muscoot Reservoir. Once part of the railroad's Mahopac Branch, it is the only double-intersection

Whipple truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

rail bridge left in the state.

History

The New York and Harlem Railroad laid tracks for their main line through Golden's Bridge as far back as 1847. A station is known to have existed as far back as 1858, but may have existed earlier. The line was acquired by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1864. In 1871, the vicinity of the station became a junction for the

New York and Mahopac Railroad New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz Albums and EPs * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartn ...

, a New York Central subsidiary better known as the Mahopac Branch, which connected the Harlem Division via

Katonah Katonah is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Bedford, Westchester County, in the U.S. state of New York. The Katonah CDP had a population of 1,679 at the 2010 census. History Katonah is named for Chief Katonah, an ...

to the Putnam Division in Mahopac. The New York Central-era station contained a water tower, a turntable, a

privy Privy is an old-fashioned term for an outdoor toilet, often known as an outhouse and by many other names. Privy may also refer to: * Privy council, a body that advises the head of state * Privy mark, a small mark in the design of a coin * Privy Pur ...

, and an interlocking cabin known as "Cabin GN." The main station house was located where the southbound on-ramp to I-684 ends at the main road today. Among the industries used by the station were King Lumber and Plywood Supply and

Sheffield Farms The Sheffield Farms–Slawson–Decker Company, known as Sheffield Farms, was a dairy that pasteurized, bottled, and delivered milk in New York City in the first half of the 20th century. It became one of the largest dairy companies in the world, ...

. The line was double-tracked from White Plains to Golden's Bridge in 1902, and then double-tracked to Brewster in 1909. In 1904, the nearby bridge for the Mahopac Branch over the Muscoot Reservoir, was replaced with

, a bridge originally used for the former

West Shore Line The River Line was a Conrail rail line located between Jersey City, New Jersey and Selkirk, New York, running along the west side of the Hudson Palisades and, after passing through a tunnel at Haverstraw, New York, along the west bank of the ...

at the mouth of

Rondout Creek Rondout Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 tributary of the Hudson River in Ulster and Sullivan counties, New York, United States. It rises on Rock ...

in Kingston. Between 1901 and 1915, the station was also intended to be the western terminus of the unfinished

Danbury and Harlem Traction Company The Danbury and Harlem Traction Company was an unfinished electric rapid-transit interurban railroad connecting Danbury, Connecticut, with the New York Central Railroad station at Goldens Bridge, New York, on the Harlem Line. History The company ...

, a trolley line intended to connect the station to Danbury, Connecticut. The last train along the Mahopac Branch ran in 1959, and the branch was abandoned in 1960. Sometime during the late-1950s the former

Richardson Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesq ...

depot was replaced with a simple brick structure. The privy was bought by actor James Cagney and moved to his farm in

Dutchess County, New York Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later or ...

. As with most of the Harlem Line, the merger of New York Central with Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968 transformed the station into a

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

station. Penn Central's continuous financial despair throughout the 1970s forced them to turn over their commuter service to the

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...

. Construction of the last segment of Interstate 684 in the mid-1970s eliminated two grade crossings, one of which was replaced by a long bridge for

New York State Route 138 New York State Route 138 (NY 138) is a long state highway in Westchester County, New York. It begins in the town of Somers at NY 100 and ends at NY 121 west of the hamlet of Waccabuc. The road passes by the shopping center ...

over

New York State Route 22 New York State Route 22 (NY 22) is a north–south state highway that parallels the eastern border of the U.S. state of New York, from the outskirts of New York City to the hamlet of Mooers in Clinton County near the Canadian border ...

, the interstate, the Harlem Line itself, and an access road between two parking lots. The bridge also contained a staircase to the main parking lot. Penn Central folded into Conrail in 1976, and the MTA converted the station and line part of Metro-North in 1983, who from that point on rebuilt the station as part of their electrification project to

Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

in 1984.

Station layout

The station has one eight-car-long high-level

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...

serving trains in both directions.

Notes

References

External links

*
Waccabuc Road entrance from Google Maps Street View

Station from I-684 from Google Maps Street View
{{DEFAULTSORT:Golden's Bridge (Metro-North Station) Metro-North Railroad stations in New York (state) Railway stations in Westchester County, New York Former New York Central Railroad stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1847 1847 establishments in New York (state) Transportation in Westchester County, New York