Ossining station is a

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

station on the

Metro-North Railroad The Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company , also branded as MTA Metro-North Railroad and commonly called simply Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a New York State publ ...

Hudson Line, located in Ossining, New York. Near the station is a ferry dock which is used by the

NY Waterway NY Waterway, or New York Waterway, is a private transportation company running ferry and bus service in the Port of New York and New Jersey and in the Hudson Valley. The company utilizes public-private partnership with agencies such as the Por ...

-operated

Haverstraw–Ossining Ferry The Haverstraw–Ossining Ferry is a passenger ferry over the Haverstraw Bay and Hudson River, which connects Haverstraw with Ossining in the U.S. state of New York. The ferry operates during rush hours on weekdays only, primarily transporting ...

. The station has two high-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 ...

s, each 10 cars long, serving the line's four tracks.

History

The

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 ...

reached Ossining on September 29, 1849, opening the village up to industrial development along the waterfront and allowing farmers inland to ship their produce to the markets of New York City. Among the riverside industrial concerns benefiting from the railroad were the marble quarries at Sing Sing Prison,

Benjamin Brandreth Benjamin Brandreth (June 23, 1809 – February 18, 1880) was a 19th-century pioneer in the early use of Mass marketing, mass advertising to build consumer awareness of his Medicine, product, a purgative that allegedly cured many ills by purging t ...

's pill factory (still extant a short distance up the river) and others. These businesses gradually supplanted the boat builders and docks that had occupied the riverfront in the early 19th century. Originally the station building was at grade level. In 1914 the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

, which the Hudson River had long been merged into, built a new station, the current building, in the

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

style Style, or styles may refer to: Film and television * ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal * ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film * ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film * '' ...

. It was placed on metal stilts to allow Main Street to pass over the tracks, eliminating the

grade crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The t ...

that had been part of the original station.Village of Ossining, , April 2010, pp. 252–54, retrieved June 26, 2011. Like the rest of the Hudson Line, the station became a

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

station once the NYC &

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

s merged in 1968. Penn Central's continuous financial despair throughout the 1970s forced them to turn over their commuter service to the

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a New York state public benefit corporations, public benefit corporation in New York (state), New York State responsible for public transportation in the New York metropolitan area, New York Ci ...

. The station and the railroad were turned over to

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...

in 1976, and eventually became part of the MTA's

in 1983. In 2000, New York Waterways used the station as the eastern port for the Haverstraw–Ossining Pedestrian Ferry creating a link between the station and Central Rockland County.

References

External links

{{NYC Main Line stations Metro-North Railroad stations in New York (state) Former New York Central Railroad stations Railway stations in Westchester County, New York Renaissance Revival architecture in New York (state) Railway stations in the United States opened in 1849 Ossining, New York 1849 establishments in New York (state)