Poughkeepsie Bridge Route

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The Poughkeepsie Bridge Route was a passenger train route from Washington, D.C. to Boston, Massachusetts, via Baltimore, Maryland and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

It specifically avoided New York City, due to the lack of a direct crossing in that area, instead passing over the Poughkeepsie Bridge at Poughkeepsie, New York. Another selling point was its Boston terminus at North Station, allowing a direct transfer to Boston and Maine Railroad lines to the north.

The Federal Express later used a similar route for several years in the 1910s, but ran via Trenton, New Jersey and New Haven, Connecticut.

The route used the following companies' lines:

• Baltimore and Ohio Railroad - Washington to Philadelphia
• Philadelphia and Reading Railroad - Philadelphia to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (via the North Pennsylvania Railroad)
• Central Railroad of New Jersey - Bethlehem to Easton, Pennsylvania
• Lehigh and Hudson River Railway - Easton to Maybrook, New York
• Central New England and Western Railroad - Maybrook to Simsbury, Connecticut
• New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad - Simsbury to Northampton, Massachusetts (via the New Haven and Northampton Railroad)
• Boston and Maine Railroad - Simsbury to Boston (North Station) (via the former Central Massachusetts Railroad)

The route was only used from 1890 to 1893, after which operating patterns changed.[1]