THERE are some parts of town I’m in but rarely, and Port Morris in the Bronx, located east of the Triboro Bridge/Bruckner Expressway from East 132nd to East 141st, is one of them: I believe I have been there a total of three times, and one of them was to visit the New York Post printing plant located there. The last time was all the way back in 2016! I am certainly overdue.
There is one “forgotten” aspect I haven’t touched on and that’s the abandoned Port Morris railroad spur that connects the Port Morris terminal, Walnut Avenue north of East 141st, to the NY Central (now Metro-North) Hudson Line at Melrose Avenue and East 163rd Street. The line was built in 1842 and placed in an open cut and a tunnel beneath St. Mary’s Park in 1905. I am unsure if it was ever a passenger line but for most of its existence it was used for freight. The last freight ran in 1999 and the line was decommissioned by CSX in 2003. For the last few decades the cut has been uss=ed by the locals as garbage and wrecked auto disposal, while CSX periodically cleans things up. There have been various proposals to incorporate it into NYC subways or as a linear park a la the High Line, but neither have been taken seriously: it’s a rather daunting region.
The tile image (cropped by me) is by James and Karla Murray, who usually specialize in NYC storefronts. In 2016, award winning photographer Nathan Kensinger did a deep dive on the branch for Curbed (now a division of New York Magazine).
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop. As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site.
11/14/25
2 comments
One idea that’s been floated is to use it to connect the Metro North Harlem line to the new New Haven/Amtrak Northeast Corridor line for Penn Station Access. I have no idea how difficult such a thing would be nor how much it would cost, but if the New Haven finishes in the next few years and then in the early 30’s the Hudson line will build two stations on the Amtrak Empire line up the West Side of Manhattan, you just know everyone on the Harlem line will want THEIR Penn Station connection.
Long before any of that work is done China will have built another thousand miles of high-speed rail.