Bronx River Parkway

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Bronx River Parkway
Reference Route 907H
Length: 19.12 mi[1][2] (30.77 km)
Formed: 1952 (present alignment)[citation needed]
South end: Story Avenue/I-278 in Soundview
Major
junctions:		 I-95 in West Farms
US 1 in Bronx Park
Cross County Pkwy in Yonkers
Sprain Brook Pkwy in Bronxville
North end: Taconic Pkwy in North Castle
Counties: Bronx, Westchester
Numbered highways in New York
Interstate - U.S. - N.Y. - Reference
Overheads on the Bronx River Parkway
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 Interstate 278 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 Reference 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.

All 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 entire Bronx River Reservation, of which the road is a portion, but current usage of the term confines it to the roadway, including the portion which now continues southward beyond the Reservation.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Route description

A seven-mile section of the Bronx River Parkway in Westchester County is closed to motorist traffic from 10 AM to 2 PM every Sunday in April, May, June, September and October (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.

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[edit] History

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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)

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 Westchester section of the Bronx River Parkway was completed in 1923. A new roadway in the New York City Borough of the Bronx including an extension south of the former Botanical Gardens/Burke Avenue terminus was added between 1946 and 1950. That extension diverges eastward from the river.

[edit] 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 has been demolished 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.

[edit] Truncation and extension

The Bronx River Parkway originally went beyond the circle to New York State Route 22 northbound. Today, the most obvious route through the circle leads motorists right to and from the Taconic, 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.

An extension into Sound View Park was proposed until the 1970s.

[edit] Westchester designation

The southernmost portion of the parkway in Westchester, south of the Sprain, is Reference Route 907G[3] 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.[4]

[edit] Exit list

County Location Mile[1][2] # Destinations Notes
Bronx Soundview 0.00 1 Story Avenue Southbound exit and northbound entrance
2 I-278 (Bruckner Expressway) – Triboro Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, New England Signed as exits 2E (east) and 2W (west)
2W Watson Avenue No southbound exit
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 – Triboro 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 Bronx River Road - Yonkers Southbound exit and entrance
Oak Street, Bronx River Road - Yonkers, Mount Vernon
7.87 11 Cross County Parkway – Mount Vernon, Yonkers, South Yonkers Signed as exits 11E (east) and 11W (west)
8.86 Sprain Parkway to Taconic Parkway Northbound exit and southbound entrance
Desmond Avenue - Yonkers Southbound exit and northbound entrance
Paxton Avenue – Bronxville No southbound exit
2 West Pondfield Road – Bronxville, Yonkers Northbound exit only
3 Elm Street – Tuckahoe Northbound exit and entrance
North end of freeway
9.26 4 Scarsdale Road – Yonkers, Tuckahoe At-grade
6 Read Avenue – Yonkers, Tuckahoe No entrance from Read Avenue; south-north and north-south connections only
8 Thompson Street - Yonkers Northbound exit and entrance
8 Vermont Terrace – Yonkers Southbound exit and entrance
9 Leewood Drive – Eastchester At-grade intersection
12.26 10 Strathmore Road/Harney Road – Yonkers, Eastchester At-grade intersection
Greenburgh 11 Ardsley Road – Greenburgh Southbound exit and entrance
Scarsdale 13.28 12 Crane Road – Scarsdale At-grade intersection
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, Greenburgh Northbound exit, 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 Main Street NY 119 – White Plains (north)
Chatterton Avenue (south)		 No northbound entrance
16.74 22 Westchester County Center/To NY 100/NY 119 – White Plains At-grade intersection
23 Cemetery Road/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 27 Lafayette Road - North Castle Northbound only; at-grade intersection
19.12 Kensico Circle; direct connection to Taconic State Parkway, Mount Pleasant

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Traffic Data Report - NY 427 to NY 908F (PDF). NYSDOT (2007-07-16). Retrieved on 2007-09-04.
  2. ^ a b Bronx River Parkway traffic counts (Westchester County). Retrieved on 2007-09-04.
  3. ^ NYSDOT List of Parkways
  4. ^ Westchester County, New York County and State Roads and Parks. Retrieved on 2007-09-04.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Parkways in New York City
Manhattan
The Bronx
Brooklyn-Queens
Staten Island
Korean War Veterans (Richmond)
Former: Willowbrook - Proposed: Wolfe's Pond
v • d • e
Westchester County Parkways
North-South Parkways:
East-West Parkways: