Fresh Pond (formerly known as Bushwick Junction) was a

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , or LIRR, is a Rail transport, railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County on Long Islan ...

station along the Lower Montauk Branch, located on an open cut near Fresh Pond Road and

Metropolitan Avenue Metropolitan Avenue is a major east-west street in Queens and northern Brooklyn, New York City. Its western end is at the East River in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the eastern end at Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. The avenue was construc ...

Fresh Pond, Queens Fresh Pond was a small middle class neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, separated from Juniper Valley by the Lutheran and Mount Olivet cemeteries. In present day, it is now considered part of the surrounding neighborhoods of ...

, on the border between the neighborhoods of

Maspeth Maspeth is a residential and commercial community in the borough of Queens in New York City. It was founded in the early 17th century by Dutch and English settlers. Neighborhoods sharing borders with Maspeth are Woodside to the north; Sunnysid ...

and Ridgewood.

History

The station opened around June 1869, however in either 1882 or 1883, it was renamed Bushwick Junction for the connection to the

Bushwick Branch The Bushwick Branch, also called the Bushwick Lead Track, is a freight railroad branch in New York City. It runs from the East Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn to Fresh Pond Junction in the Glendale neighborhood of Queens, where it connec ...

. The station was rebuilt in April 1895 and closed again in 1915 as part of a grade elimination project. Though the third station was opened the same year with platforms and pedestrian bridges, the former station house still remained intact well into 1923. For the next four years, both the original name and new name would be on the LIRR timetables until it went back to strictly being named Fresh Pond in 1919. Fresh Pond station closed on March 16, 1998, along with the four remaining stations on the Lower Montauk branch due to low ridership, which did not make it cost-effective to build high-level platforms needed to support the then-new C3 bi-level cars that replaced the remainder of the rolling stock on the LIRR that were able to board at low-level platforms.

Station layout

This station had one low-level

island platform An island platform (also center platform (American English) or centre platform (British English)) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway inte ...

between the two southernmost tracks (for eastbound trains) and one low-level

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms, ...

serving the northernmost track (for

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a neighborhood within the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; Sunnyside to the east; and Newtown Creek, which separates Queens from Greenpoint, Brook ...

-bound trains). However, the platforms were actually a wide area of dirt and gravel. The island platform had a small tin shelter. The only way to reach the station was via a narrow walkway that began at the intersection of Metropolitan Avenue and Fresh Pond Road and went behind a car rental parking lot. It led to an overpass that had staircases going down to each platform.

References

External links

Fresh Pond Junction (TrainsAreFun.com)

Photos of Abandoned Station (Forgotten-NY.com)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fresh Pond (Lirr Station) 1869 establishments in New York (state) 1998 disestablishments in New York City Former Long Island Rail Road stations in New York City Maspeth, Queens Railway stations in the United States closed in 1998 Railway stations in Queens, New York Railway stations in the United States opened in 1869 Ridgewood, Queens

History

Station layout

See also

References

External links