Fresh Pond station

Fresh Pond (formerly known as Bushwick Junction) was a Long Island Rail Road station along the Lower Montauk Branch, located on an open cut near Fresh Pond Road and Metropolitan Avenue in Fresh Pond, Queens, on the border between the neighborhoods of Maspeth and Ridgewood.

Fresh Pond
The site of the former station in December 2017
General information
Location	Fresh Pond, Queens, New York U.S.
Coordinates	40°42′43.8″N 73°53′56.1″W
Owned by	Long Island Rail Road
Line(s)	Montauk Branch
Platforms	1 side platform, 1 island platform
Tracks	3
History
Opened	June 1869
Closed	March 16, 1998
Rebuilt	April 1895
Electrified	August 29, 1905
Previous names	Bushwick Junction
Former services
Preceding station Long Island Rail Road Following station Maspeth toward Long Island City Montauk Branch Glendale toward Montauk Preceding station Long Island Rail Road Following station Metropolitan Avenue toward Bushwick Bushwick Branch Terminus Terminus Bay Ridge Branch Myrtle Avenue toward Bay Ridge

This station had one low-level island platform between the two southernmost tracks (for eastbound trains) and one low-level side platform serving the northernmost track (for Long Island City-bound trains). However, the platforms were actually a wide area of dirt and gravel. The island platform had a small tin shelter. The only way to reach the station was via a narrow walkway that began at the intersection of Metropolitan Avenue and Fresh Pond Road and went behind a car rental parking lot. It led to an overpass that had staircases going down to each platform.

The station opened around June 1869, however in either 1882 or 1883, it was renamed Bushwick Junction for the connection to the Bushwick Branch. The station was rebuilt in April 1895 and closed again in 1915 as part of a grade elimination project. Though the third station was opened the same year with platforms and pedestrian bridges, the former station house still remained intact well into 1923. For the next four years, both the original name and new name would be on the LIRR timetables until it went back to strictly being named Fresh Pond in 1919.[1][2]

Fresh Pond station closed on March 16, 1998, along with the four remaining stations on the Lower Montauk branch due to low ridership, which did not make it cost-effective to build high-level platforms needed to support the then-new C3 bi-level cars that replaced the remainder of the rolling stock on the LIRR that were able to board at low-level platforms.[3]