- Bronx River Parkway
-
Bronx River Parkway
Route information Length: 19.12 mi[1][2] (30.77 km) Existed: 1952 (present alignment)[citation needed] – present Major junctions South end: Story Avenue in Soundview 
I-95 in West Farms
US 1 in Bronx Park
Cross County Parkway in Yonkers
Sprain Brook Parkway in BronxvilleNorth end: 
Taconic Parkway in North CastleLocation Counties: Bronx, Westchester Highway system Numbered highways in New York
Interstate • U.S. • N.Y. (former) • Reference • County
Overheads on the Bronx River Parkway
The Bronx River Parkway is a 19.12-mile (30.77 km) long parkway in downstate New York. It is named for the nearby Bronx River, which it parallels. The southern terminus of the parkway is at Story Avenue near Bruckner Expressway in the Bronx neighborhood of Soundview. The northern terminus is at the Kensico Circle in North Castle, Westchester County, where the parkway connects to the Taconic State Parkway and, via a short connector, New York State Route 22. Within the Bronx, the parkway is maintained by the New York State Department of Transportation and is designated New York State Route 907H, an unsigned reference route. In Westchester County, the parkway is maintained by the Westchester County Department of Public Works and is designated unsigned Westchester County Route 9987.
Most of the exits on the parkway, including the traffic light-controlled intersections in Westchester County, have interchange numbers. The term "Bronx River Parkway" originally referred to the Bronx River Reservation, New York's first linear park, of which the road is a portion, from the Bronx/Westchester line to Kensico Dam Plaza. Current usage of the term confines it to the roadway, but extends it to the portion which now continues southward beyond the Reservation.[3]
Contents
Route description
A seven-mile (11 km) section of the Bronx River Parkway in Westchester County south of White Plains is closed to motorist traffic from 10 AM to 2 PM select Sundays in May, June and September (with the exception of Memorial and Labor Day weekends), allowing bicyclists to venture along the scenic road. Another section north of the one reserved for bicyclists is reserved for inline skating.[4]
History
Construction began in Westchester County in 1907, making it the earliest limited-access automobile highway to start construction. However, although construction on the Long Island Motor Parkway began a year later, a section of the Long Island road opened for traffic before the end of 1908, opening before the Bronx River as the first limited access automobile highway to be put into use. Neither was up to modern freeway standards, utilizing left turns across the opposing direction at access points.
The Bronx River Parkway was the first highway to utilize a median strip to separate the opposing lanes, the first highway constructed through a park, and the first highway where intersecting streets crossed over bridges.[5][6]
The Westchester section of the Bronx River Parkway first opened to traffic in 1922 and was completed in 1925.[7][8] A new roadway in the New York City borough of the Bronx including an extension south of the former Botanical Gardens/Burke Avenue terminus opened in 1951.[9] That extension diverges eastward from the river.
From 1953 to 1955, a 2.6-mile (4.2 km) segment of the parkway between Bronxville and the Bronx was closed to straighten and widen the road. During this reconstruction period, a new overpass was also built for the Cross County Parkway.[10][11][12]
Late exit modifications
During the 1960s and since then an entrance and exit on the northbound side between current exits 5 and 6 in the Bronx, and an associated U-turn from southbound to northbound, formerly open to general traffic, were reserved for official use by police and the Parks Dept. which maintains an office there. This was around the time other U-turns were being eliminated from various parkways in New York City.
A gas station in the wide median between Bronx exits 7 and 8, north of the pedestrian overpass to the Botanical Garden, was closed due to fire in the early 1980s and has since been razed and the median relandscaped. Of a pair of former gas stations on the outer margins of the roadway in Westchester near Crestwood, the southbound one is currently being used as a Westchester County Police Sub-Station, and the northbound used only as a tourist information stand.
The interchange with the Cross County Parkway did not provide direct access to and from both directions of the latter until extra ramps and an extra overpass were provided in the 1970s. The original interchange is now exit 11W.
In 2009 the northbound exit ramp to Oak St., Yonkers was replaced by an exit to Yonkers Ave., a block to the south.
Truncation and extension
The Bronx River Parkway originally went beyond its northern terminus at Kensico Circle to NY Route 22 northbound. Today, the most obvious route through the circle leads motorists directly to and from the Taconic State Parkway, and the way to NY 22 northbound is considered to be a little spur off the circle. This spur from the Kensico Circle to NY 22 is unsigned County Route 68. Prior to heightened security measures enacted post-September 11th motorists could take the road that leads towards NY 22 and then drive across the top of the Kensico Dam and eventually re-connect with the Taconic State Parkway.
An extension from the southern terminus in the Bronx into Soundview Park was proposed until the 1970s.
Westchester designation
The southernmost portion of the parkway in Westchester, south of the Sprain, is internally designated as NY 907G, an unsigned reference route,[13] in apparent violation of the numbering standard. Ordinarily, the second digit should be the region. New York City and Long Island, regions 10 and 11, share 0; Westchester is region 8 (the Hutchinson River Parkway also shares this oddity). The section south of here is marked only with reference markers, and the section north only with county mileposts. This middle section has county mileposts in the middle, and reference markers with state mileposts (counting from the southern terminus in the Bronx, not the city line) alongside. However, Reference Route 907G is no longer listed in the NYSDOT traffic counts[1] and the entirety of the parkway in the county is considered a county route by Westchester County.[14]
Exit list
County Location Mile[1][2] Exit Destinations Notes Bronx Soundview 0.00 1 Story Avenue Southbound exit and northbound entrance 2E-W 
I-278 (Bruckner Expressway) – Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, New England / Watson AvenueNo northbound exit for exit 2E; No southbound exit for Watson Avenue West Farms 3 Westchester Avenue Southbound exit only 0.80 4 I-95 (Cross Bronx Expressway) – Throgs Neck Bridge, George Washington Bridge5 
To I-895 south (Sheridan Expressway) / East 177th Street – Robert F. Kennedy BridgeSouthbound exit and northbound entrance Bronx Park 6 US 1 north (Boston Road) – Bronx Zoo2.30 7E 
Pelham Parkway2.30 7W US 1 south (Fordham Road)3.10 8 
Mosholu Parkway / Allerton AvenueSigned as exits 8E (Allerton Avenue) and 8W (Mosholu Parkway) Williamsbridge 4.00 9 Gun Hill Road Woodlawn 5.40 10 East 233rd Street Westchester Yonkers 10C Bronx River Road - Yonkers, Bronx Southbound exit and entrance 10A Yonkers Avenue / Mount Vernon Avenue - Yonkers Northbound exit and entrance 10B Bronx River Road - Yonkers Southbound exit and entrance 7.87 11 Cross County Parkway – Mount Vernon, Yonkers, South YonkersSigned as exits 11E (east) and 11W (west) 8.86 Sprain Brook Parkway to Taconic ParkwayNorthbound exit and southbound entrance 1A Desmond Avenue - Yonkers Southbound exit and northbound entrance 1 Paxton Avenue – Bronxville No southbound exit 2 West Pondfield Road – Bronxville, Yonkers Northbound exit only 3 Elm Street – Tuckahoe Northbound exit and entrance 9.26 4 Scarsdale Road – Crestwood (Yonkers), Tuckahoe At-grade 6 Read Avenue – Crestwood (Yonkers) Southbound exit only 8 Thompson Street - Crestwood (Yonkers) Northbound exit and entrance
Crestwood Station Parking Lot8 Vermont Terrace – Crestwood (Yonkers) Southbound exit and entrance 9 Leewood Drive – Eastchester At-grade intersection, except for northbound exit 12.26 10 Strathmore Road / Harney Road – Yonkers, Eastchester At-grade intersection Greenburgh 11 Ardsley Road – Greenburgh, Scarsdale Southbound exit and entrance Scarsdale 13.28 12 Crane Road – Scarsdale No southbound entrance 13 Ogden Road – Scarsdale Northbound exit and entrance 14 Butler Road – Scarsdale Northbound exit and entrance 15.41 15 Fenimore Road / East Hartsdale Avenue – Scarsdale, Hartsdale/Greenburgh Northbound exit and southbound entrance 16 Greenacres Avenue – Scarsdale Southbound exit only 18 Claremont Road – Scarsdale Northbound exit and entrance White Plains 19 Walworth Crossing - White Plains, Scarsdale Northbound exit and entrance 21 
NY 119 - White PlainsNo northbound entrance 16.74 22 
To NY 100 / NY 119 – White PlainsAt-grade intersection 23 Old Tarrytown Road – Greenburgh At-grade intersection 24 Fisher Lane – Greenburgh, North Castle At-grade intersection 25 Parkway Homes Road – Greenburgh, North Castle At-grade intersection 18.60 26 Virginia Road - Greenburgh, North Castle At-grade intersection North Castle 19.12 Taconic Parkway – Mount PleasantKensico Circle 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi See also
- List of reference routes in New York
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Bronx County, New York
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Westchester County, New York
References
- ^ a b c "2007 Traffic Data Report for New York State" (PDF). New York State Department of Transportation. July 25, 2008. https://www.nysdot.gov/divisions/engineering/technical-services/hds-respository/NYSDOT_Traffic_Data_Report_2007.pdf. Retrieved July 17, 2009.
- ^ a b "Bronx River Parkway traffic counts (Westchester County)". http://www.westchestergov.com/dpw/BRPcounts.htm. Retrieved September 4, 2007.
- ^ "Bronx River Parkway Reservation". Westchester County Department of Parks. 2008. http://parks.westchestergov.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1900&Itemid=4466. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
- ^ http://www.mylivingfit.com/2010/05/bronx-river-parkway-bicycle-sundays/
- ^ "Built to Meander, Parkway Fights to Keep Measured Pace". The New York Times. June 6, 1995. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/06/nyregion/built-to-meander-parkway-fights-to-keep-measured-pace.html. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
- ^ Hershenson, Roberta (June 18, 1995). "Bronx River Parkway On an Endangered List". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/18/nyregion/bronx-river-parkway-on-an-endangered-list.html. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
- ^ "City Opens Bronx Park Way to Traffic". The New York Times: p. 14. September 17, 1922. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9500E3DE1139EF3ABC4F52DFBF668389639EDE. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
- ^ "Bronx Parkway Officially Opened". The New York Times: p. 26. November 6, 1925. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10914F83B5E1A7A93C4A9178AD95F418285F9. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
- ^ "Bronx River Parkway Extension Ready for Motorists Wednesday". The New York Times: p. 14. January 6, 1951. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30D15FB3A5A1A7B93C4A9178AD85F458585F9. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
- ^ Folsom, Merrill (January 17, 1953). "Bulldozers Rip Up Parkway's Beauty". The New York Times: p. 17. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20716F8355E177B93C5A8178AD85F478585F9. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
- ^ "Parkway Segment to Close for Year". The New York Times: p. 21. January 31, 1953. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0F14F6355E177B93C3AA178AD85F478585F9. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
- ^ "Highway Link Reopened". The New York Times: p. 15. February 19, 1955. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40C15FA3A5D13728DDDA00994DA405B8589F1D3. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
- ^ "Bridge Inventory Manual – Appendix G: State Touring Route Numbers for Named Roads" (PDF). New York State Department of Transportation. April 2005. https://www.nysdot.gov/divisions/engineering/structures/repository/manuals/inventory/appendix_g_named_roads_april05.pdf. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
- ^ Westchester County Department of Public Works (February 2010) (PDF). Westchester County, New York County and State Roads and Parks (Map). http://www.westchestergov.com/planningdocs/pdfmaps/countystateroadsparks.pdf. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
External links
- Bronx River Parkway
- The Bronx River Parkway Reservation Today
- Bronx River Parkway reservation
- History of Scenic Road Programs - New York: Westchester County Parkways
- Bronx Parkway (Greater New York Roads)
Parkways in New York City Manhattan The Bronx Brooklyn-Queens Belt Parkway system: Cross Island - Laurelton - Shore - Southern
Others: Grand Central - Jackie Robinson (Interborough)
Former: Gowanus - Whitestone - Long Island Motor ParkwayStaten Island Korean War Veterans (Richmond)
Former: Willowbrook - Proposed: Wolfe's PondParkways in Westchester County, New York North–south parkways Briarcliff–Peekskill • Bronx River • Central Westchester • Farragut • Hutchinson River • Saw Mill River • Sprain Brook • TaconicEast–west parkways Categories:- Parkways in New York City
- Transportation in Westchester County, New York
- Transportation in Yonkers, New York
- Parkways in New York
- Transportation in the Bronx
- National Register of Historic Places in New York City
- National Register of Historic Places in The Bronx
- National Register of Historic Places in Westchester County, New York
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
