Woodhaven Junction (LIRR station)

Woodhaven Junction
Former Woodhaven Junction Station site
Location	Atlantic Avenue and 100th Street, East of Woodhaven Boulevard Woodhaven, New York
Coordinates
Owned by	MTA
Line(s)
Platforms	4 side platforms (2 on each level)
Tracks	4 (2 on each level)
Other information
Station code	None
Fare zone	1
History
Opened	1881 (Rockaway Beach Branch, elevated station) 1893/1895 (Atlantic Branch, street-level station)
Closed	June 8, 1962 (Rockaway Beach Branch, elevated station) December 1976 (Atlantic Branch, underground station)
Rebuilt	December 28, 1942 (Atlantic Branch underground station opened, replaced street-level station)
Electrified	1905
Services
None Preceding station   LIRR   Following station East New York toward Atlantic Terminal Atlantic Branch (City Terminal Zone) Boland's Landing toward Long Island Preceding station   LIRR   Following station Woodhaven station Atlantic Branch (current and former locations) Clarenceville station Brooklyn Manor toward Grand Street Rockaway Beach Branch Ozone Park toward Rockaway Park

Woodhaven Junction is a closed station complex on the Atlantic Branch and Rockaway Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. Located at Atlantic Avenue between 98th and 100th Streets, the elevated Rockaway Beach station was closed in 1962 along with the rest of the branch, while the underground Atlantic Branch station was closed and abandoned in 1976. It should not be confused with the former Woodhaven Station two stops west along the Atlantic Branch.

History

File:LIRR 1891 Woodhaven Junction station.jpg

1891 map of the arrangement of Woodhaven Junction.

The station was first opened by the LIRR in the 1880s for the Rockaway Beach Branch (then known as the New York, Woodhaven and Rockaway Railroad), and in 1893 for the Atlantic Branch. Beginning in May 1940, both stations were rebuilt when the Atlantic Branch was grade separated and placed in an underground tunnel. The elevated Rockaway Beach station opened in September 1941, while the underground Atlantic Branch station opened for service on December 28, 1942.

The elevated station, located on a trestle adjacent to 100th Street, was built with two concrete high-level side platforms, with staircases down to the street and the Atlantic Branch on either side of Atlantic Avenue. The underground station's design resembled an Independent Subway station, with tile work of the same design; the name mosaic reads "Woodhaven." South of the elevated station was a two-track wye, curving northwest from the Rockaway branch to merge with the Atlantic branch west of its station at about 96th Street.

In the early expansion plans of the city's Independent Subway System in the 1930s, the Rockaway Beach Branch was planned to be absorbed into the new subway, which would have turned the Woodhaven elevated station into a stop on the IND Queens Boulevard Line or a new Queens crosstown line. In 1950, the Rockaway Beach Branch south of Ozone Park closed after the trestle on Jamaica Bay between The Raunt and Broad Channel Stations was destroyed by a fire. The city purchased the entire line in 1955, but only the portion south of Liberty Avenue was reactivated for subway service. Ridership declined on the remaining portion of the LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch, and fewer trains were scheduled to stop at Woodhaven on the Atlantic Branch. Passengers who would normally use the station had to ride buses to the next nearest stations. The elevated station of the Rockaway Beach Branch closed first on June 8, 1962, along with the rest of the Rockaway Beach Branch. The underground station of the Atlantic Branch closed in 1976.

Woodhaven Junction is one of two stations on the abandoned Rockaway Beach Branch still standing (the other being Ozone Park), while the underground Atlantic Branch station is still visible from passing trains. The now-abandoned LIRR substation is present on the south side of Atlantic Avenue west of the elevated line. The northern staircases to the elevated station are still visible. The former track junction and part of the Rockaway Branch right-of-way south to 97th Avenue has been paved over and is used as a school bus depot for the Logan Bus Company; the ramp and tunnel portal of the wye have been filled in.

Station layout

1F Former Rockaway Branch platform	Side platform, not in use
	Northbound	Trackbed
	Southbound	Trackbed
	Side platform, not in use
G	Street Level	Exit; underpass
B1 Former Atlantic Branch platform level	Side platform, not in service
	Westbound	← Atlantic Branch (City Terminal Zone) does not stop here (East New York is the next operating passenger stop)
	Eastbound	→ Atlantic Branch (City Terminal Zone) does not stop here (Jamaica is the next operating passenger stop) →
	Side platform, not in service

External links

• Abandoned Stations - Woodhaven (Joseph Brennan)
• Former Rockaway Beach Branch, including Woodhaven Station (Forgotten New York)
• The Former Woodhaven Station (The LIRR Today)