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 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 most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, 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 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 ...

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.

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 ...

, 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 Grand Central Terminal is a major commuter rail terminal in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, serving the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines. It is the most recent of three functionally similar buildings on the same s ...

via that line along the northeast bank of the

Harlem River The Harlem River is an tidal strait in New York, United States, flowing between the Hudson River and the East River and separating the island of Manhattan from the Bronx on the New York mainland. The northern stretch, also called the Spuyt ...

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 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 g ...

s were swapped for steam. The NYCRR's long-distance passenger trains, including the ''

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " 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 a muscul ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', and ''

Lake Shore Limited The ''Lake Shore Limited'' is an overnight Amtrak intercity passenger train that runs between Chicago and either New York City or Boston via two sections east of Albany. The train began service in 1975; its predecessor was Amtrak's Chicago– ...

'', 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 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 float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a t ...

s. 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 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 ...

(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 The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

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 awar ...

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