The Highbridge Facility, also simply known as Highbridge or High Bridge, is a maintenance facility for 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 ...

in the Highbridge 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 ...

, United States. It is the third stop along the Hudson Line north of

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 is for Metro-North employees only, though this stop also formerly served

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 ...

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 Interstate 87 (I-87) is a north–south Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of New York. It is most of the main highway between New York City and Montreal. The highway begins at exit 47 off I-278 in the New York ...

, the Hudson Line, and Exterior Drive.

History and use

High Bridge station opened in 1871 when the

Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad was a railroad built in what is today the West Bronx and South Bronx in New York City, United States. It ran from the junction between the West Side Line and the Hudson River Railroad near Spuyten Duyvil C ...

, then owned by the

New York Central and Hudson River Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

, 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. The station served as a transfer point for the

Putnam Division The New York and Putnam Railroad, nicknamed the Old Put, was a railroad line that operated between the Bronx and Brewster in New York State. It was in close proximity to the Hudson River Railroad and New York and Harlem Railroad. All three cam ...

of the NYC until service ended on that line in 1958, and the station also served as a change point where

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas ...

s were swapped for

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

. The NYCRR's long-distance passenger trains, including the ''

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for "gluttony, glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is ...

'', ''

20th Century Limited The ''20th Century Limited'' was an express passenger train on the New York Central Railroad (NYC) from 1902 to 1967. The train traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along th ...

'', and '' Lake Shore Limited'', picked up their

dining car A dining car (American English) or a restaurant car (British English), also a diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. It is distinct from other railroad food service cars that ...

s 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 Piggyback, piggy-back, or piggybacking may mean: Transport * Piggyback (transportation), something that is riding on the back of something else Art, entertainment, and media * Splash cymbal piggybacking, mounting a cymbal on top of an already ...

" 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. 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. 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 The Oak Point Link, also known as the South Bronx–Oak Point Link, is a long railroad line in the Bronx, New York City, United States, along the east bank of the Harlem River. It connects the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line (on the Spuyten ...

via a low viaduct along the east bank of the Harlem River leading to the

Harlem River Yards Harlem River Yards (also known as Harlem River Yard Oak Point Yard The Oak Point Yard is a freight railroad yard located in the South Bronx, New York City. The yard is owned by CSX Transportation, and is a base for CSX's local deliveries in the area, including to the Hunts Point Cooperative Market and for trai ...

, both of which are freight yards originally owned by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.

In popular culture

A scene in the movie '' Funny Girl'' shows

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers List ...

riding one of the NYCRR tugs.

Platform and track configuration

References

External links

High Bridge Station Photo History (NYCSubway.org)
{{Metro-North Metro-North Railroad stations in New York City Former New York Central Railroad stations Railway stations in the Bronx Rail yards in New York (state) Railway workshops in the United States Highbridge, Bronx