Port Morris Branch
The Port Morris Branch was part of the Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad, which was originally built through the South Bronx in 1842. As part of a grade crossing elimination project in 1903, the line was placed in a trench that included a tunnel under St. Mary's Park, giving an unimpeded connection between the New York and New Haven Railroad (Metro North New Haven Line) and the Oak Point Yard of the New York and Harlem Railroad (Metro North Harlem Line)
After the opening of the Oak Point Link in 1998, the narrow, curvy, freight-only Port Morris Branch became obsolete and was deactivated, with formal abandonment following in 2003.
The MTA envisioned incorporating the Port Morris Branch as part of a circumferential subway line connecting the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn via underutilized and abandoned ROW. Community leaders also floated the idea of converting the Port Morris Branch into a linear park.
About a year after my first visit in 2008, the trench was dewatered and cleared of garbage. In 2012, a building was built in the ROW at 156th street, severing the line and foreclosing the possibility of reusing the entire Port Morris Branch for transit. By the time I got back in 2020, the bridges north of the new building were being filled in.
