| Bronx River Parkway | |
|---|---|
| Route information | |
| Length: | 19.12 mi[1][2] (30.77 km) |
| Existed: | 1952 (present alignment) – 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 Bronxville |
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| North end: | Taconic Parkway in North Castle |
| Location | |
| Counties: | Bronx, Westchester |
| Highway system | |
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Numbered highways in New York |
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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]
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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]
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]
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.
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.
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]
| 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 Avenue | No 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 Bridge | |||
| 5 | To I-895 south (Sheridan Expressway) / East 177th Street – Robert F. Kennedy Bridge | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | |||
| Bronx Park | 6 | US 1 north (Boston Road) – Bronx Zoo | |||
| 2.30 | 7E | Pelham Parkway | |||
| 2.30 | 7W | US 1 south (Fordham Road) | |||
| 3.10 | 8 | Mosholu Parkway / Allerton Avenue | Signed 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 Yonkers | Signed as exits 11E (east) and 11W (west) | ||
| 8.86 | Sprain Brook Parkway to Taconic Parkway | Northbound 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 Lot |
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| 8 | 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 Plains | No northbound entrance | |||
| 16.74 | 22 | To NY 100 / NY 119 – White Plains | At-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 Pleasant | Kensico Circle | ||
| 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi | |||||
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