The Bruckner Interchange is a complex interchange in the

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 U ...

borough 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 ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. The junction connects four highways: the Bruckner, Cross Bronx, and

Hutchinson River The Hutchinson River is a freshwater stream located in the Bronx, and Southern Westchester County, New York. The river forms in Scarsdale at Brookline Road and flows 10 miles (16 km) south until it empties into Eastchester Bay in t ...

(or Whitestone) Expressways, and the

Hutchinson River Parkway The Hutchinson River Parkway (known colloquially as The Hutch) is a north–south parkway in southern New York (state), New York in the United States. It extends for from the massive Bruckner Interchange in the Throggs Neck section of the Bron ...

. It was constructed in the 1960s; however, elements of the junction date as far back as the 1940s. The interchange includes connections to several interstate routes, including I-278, I-678, I-295 and

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadi ...

Description

The Bruckner Interchange is located in the southeastern portion of

in the neighborhoods of Unionport (near Castle Hill) and Schuylerville. It is linear-shaped, comprising a series of closely spaced ramps that extend for roughly on an east–west axis. The junction crosses

Westchester Creek Westchester Creek (also known as Frenchman's Creek) is a tidal inlet of the East River located in the south eastern portion of the Bronx in New York City. It is 2.1 miles (3.39 km) in length. The creek formerly traveled further inland, to wha ...

about from its south end at the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Que ...

. The interchange serves as the meeting point of four highways: the

Cross Bronx Expressway The Cross Bronx Expressway is a major freeway in the New York City borough of the Bronx. It is mainly designated as part of Interstate 95 (I-95), but also includes portions of I-295 and U.S. Route 1 (US 1). The Cross Bronx begins ...

to the northwest and its extension to the southeast; the

Bruckner Expressway The Bruckner Expressway is a freeway in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It carries Interstate 278 (I-278) and I-95 (and formerly I-878) from the Triborough Bridge to the south end of the New England Thruway at the Pelham Park ...

to the southwest and northeast; the Hutchinson River Expressway to the south; and the

to the north. Below the freeway connections, Bruckner Boulevard connects to a handful of local surface streets, but also handles most connections to the Hutchinson River Parkway. Fundamentally, the interchange is the crossing of three major thoroughfares, each of which change route numbers as they cross the interchange. The

traverses the interchange from northwest (I-95) to southeast (I-295), the

traverses from southwest (I-278) to northeast (I-95) while the

traverses from north (unnumbered) to south (I-678). (Because of road naming conventions in New York, the Hutchinson River Parkway changes its name to the Hutchinson River Expressway, to allow truck access to the Whitestone Bridge. This short section is also sometimes considered part of the Whitestone Expressway, also an alternate name for part of I-678) Interstate 95 (I-95) passes through the interchange, entering from the northwest on the Cross Bronx Expressway and exiting to the northeast on the Bruckner Expressway. I-278, I-295, I-678, and the Hutchinson River Parkway all begin or end at this interchange. The Cross Bronx Expressway continues southeast from the Bruckner Interchange as I-295, while the Bruckner Expressway enters the junction from the southwest as I-278. The Hutchinson River Expressway is I-678, which becomes the Hutchinson River Parkway north of the interchange. The Bruckner Interchange is the southernmost of the three times the Hutchinson River Parkway crosses I-95 in the Bronx.

Missing connections

Several connections are missing at the junction, largely due to its compact design. However, such omissions are either remedied elsewhere or considered unnecessary under the circumstances.

History

The location of the interchange was originally the point where the Whitestone Parkway connected to

Bruckner Boulevard The Bruckner Expressway is a freeway in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It carries Interstate 278 (I-278) and I-95 (and formerly I-878) from the Triborough Bridge to the south end of the New England Thruway at the Pelham Parkway ...

(then- New York State Route 1A). In the early 1940s, the

was extended southward from

Pelham Bay Park Pelham Bay Park is a municipal park located in the northeast corner of the New York City borough of the Bronx. It is, at , the largest public park in New York City. The park is more than three times the size of Manhattan's Central Park. The pa ...

to Bruckner Boulevard, where it fed into the Whitestone Parkway. Bruckner Boulevard also served as the initial eastern endpoint of the

, the first section of which was built in the early 1950s and ran from the

Bronx River Parkway The Bronx River Parkway (sometimes abbreviated as the Bronx Parkway) is a long parkway in downstate New York in the United States. It is named for the nearby Bronx River, which it parallels. The southern terminus of the parkway is at Story Aven ...

to a point just west of the Hutchinson River Parkway. The section of Bruckner Boulevard between the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Hutchinson River Parkway was upgraded into a freeway shortly afterward. Most of Bruckner Boulevard was ultimately converted into the

, with the boulevard name reassigned to one-way streets running along both sides of the freeway. By 1961, the freeway was complete from the

Bronx River The Bronx River (), approximately long, flows through southeast New York in the United States and drains an area of . It is named after colonial settler Jonas Bronck. Besides the Hutchinson River, the Bronx River is the only fresh water river i ...

northeast to the

Pelham Parkway The Bronx and Pelham Parkway, also known formally as the Bronx–Pelham Parkway but called Pelham Parkway in everyday use, is a parkway in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. The road begins in Bronx Park at the Bronx River Parkway an ...

, including in the vicinity of the

. The Cross Bronx Expressway Extension was also finished by this time. Both developments led to the construction of the modern Bruckner Interchange, which was designed to accommodate the reconstruction of Bruckner Boulevard and the opening of the Cross Bronx Extension while retaining the pre-existing connections with the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Hutchinson River Parkway.

References

External links

*{{Commons category-inline Transportation in the Bronx Interstate 95 Road interchanges in the United States