The

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Northeastern United States, originally connecting Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, with Lake Erie at Dunkirk, New York. The railroad expanded west to Chicago following its 1865 ...

Piermont Branch was a rail branch line that was formed from the easternmost portion of the original main line of the Erie. It ran from

Suffern, New York Suffern is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village that was incorporated in 1796 in the town of Ramapo, New York, Ramapo in Rockland County, New York. Located adjacent to the town of Mahwah, New Jersey, Suffern is located 31 miles ...

Piermont, New York Piermont is a village incorporated in 1847 in Rockland County, New York, United States. Piermont is in the town of Orangetown, located north of the hamlet of Palisades, east of Sparkill, and south of Grand View-on-Hudson, on the west bank of ...

Route

The line began at the Piermont Pier, where steamboats ran to New York City. It then ran to Sparkill, where it connected with the

Northern Branch The Northern Branch is a railroad line that runs from Jersey City to Northvale in northeastern New Jersey, and formerly extended further into New York State. The line was constructed in 1859 by the Northern Railroad of New Jersey to connect ...

. After this, it ran northwest to Nanuet, where it connected with what is now the

NJ Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. I ...

Pascack Valley Line The Pascack Valley Line is a commuter rail line operated by the Hoboken Division of New Jersey Transit, in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York. The line runs north from Hoboken Terminal, through Hudson and Bergen counties in New Jerse ...

. It then ran through Monsey and Tallman, then turned north in Suffern.

Remnants

The rail line is an active

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

line between Suffern and Tallman. Train H55, based out of Hillburn Yard, runs down the line. Overgrown tracks remain between Tallman and Spring Valley station. The

follows the route of the Piermont Branch from Spring Valley to

Nanuet Nanuet is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Clarkstown, New York, United States. The third largest hamlet in Clarkstown, it is located north of Pearl River, south of New City, east of Spring Valley, and west of West Nyack. It ...

. Between Nanuet and Blauvelt, there are very few remnants. The only remnants in this section are a surviving Milepost 8 marker, and a bridge over a creek that carries nothing. Past Blauvelt, the line has been converted to rail trails: the Joseph B. Clarke Rail Trail from Blauvelt to Sparkill; the Old Erie Path from Sparkill to South Nyack and the Raymond G. Esposito Trail from South Nyack to Nyack. The line terminated at Franklin Street in Nyack.

References

{{reflist Erie Railroad lines Rail lines in Rockland County, New York