Van Cortlandt Park

The Daily Plant : Thursday, January 12, 2006

Remnants Of Railroad History In Van Cortlandt Park

Source: 1906 Parks Annual Report

If you’ve ever been to the golf clubhouse at Van Cortlandt and taken a walk in the immediate vicinity, you might have noticed that beyond the lake lies a sturdy looking bridge supporting a nature trail. Close examination reveals that this is a two-lane bridge, each at least ten feet wide—quite generous for a lightly trafficked park path. Walking over the bridge and along the path brings you to a clearing where a series of columns stands and remnants of stone speckle the path. Add to this the tell-tale sign of a few railroad ties jutting up slightly from the ground, and you would be correct in your assumption that this overgrown site was once a railroad station.

Indeed, a report from 100 years ago includes notes from the Parks Commissioner requesting grading and landscaping around the new train bridges that were built to raise the trains from the park walkways. So, where did these trains come from and where have they gone since? The company that originally laid the track was incorporated on May 21, 1869. This was long before Van Cortlandt Park (in 1888) was even a glimmer in John Mullaly’s eye. Although the company originally hoped it would some day grow to become a line to Boston, the 54 miles of track, which started at 155^th and Sedgewick Avenues in the Bronx, never got past the town of Brewster in Putnam County, New York. Like many rail lines, it got a nickname based on its finial destination: commuters referred to the train as "Old Put."

An 1893 New York Times article said the line connected the "most historic and picturesque portions of Westchester and Putnam counties." However beautiful the trip might sound, riding on Old Put was something of a necessity in this, the pre-automobile age. Passengers traveling to Brewster from Grand Central terminal would have to switch at High Bridge station. From there, the route through the Bronx closely followed what is now the Major Deegan Expressway, with stops in at Fordham Heights (now University Heights), Kingsbridge, Van Cortlandt Park, Westchester, and Putnam county. With more than 30 stops total, the 54-mile trip took about 2 hours and 40 minutes.

After the cascade of railroad consolidation that took place in the first half of the twentieth century, Old Put, originally part of the New York and Boston Railroad, became the property of the New York Central Railroad. On May 29, 1958, the line carried its final passengers and never ran again. In addition to the skeletal remains of the station in Van Cortlandt Park, some sidings remain in the Bronx and in Westchester, and surviving station houses now serve a variety of functions—from library to restaurant.

-written by John Mattera

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