138th Street (NYCRR station)

138th Street
An 1893 photo of the 138th Street station from "The King’s Handbook of New York City."
Location	Park Avenue and 138th Street Mott Haven, The Bronx, New York
Owned by	New York Central Railroad
Line(s)	Hudson Line   Harlem Line
Platforms	2 island platforms
Tracks	4
Connections	New York City Subway: trains at Mott Haven Avenue NYCT Bus: Bx1, Bx33
History
Opened	c. 1858
Closed	June 1, 1972; 45 years ago (1972-06-01)
Rebuilt	1886 (131 years ago) (1886), 1897 (120 years ago) (1897), 1966 (51 years ago) (1966)
Electrified	700V (DC) third rail
Previous names	Mott Haven The Bronx
Services
Former services   New York Central Railroad Highbridge toward Peekskill Hudson Division Harlem-125th Street toward New York City Harlem-125th Street toward New York City Harlem Division Melrose toward Chatham

138th Street was a station on the Harlem and Hudson Lines of the New York Central Railroad which served the community of Mott Haven in the borough of The Bronx. It was the southernmost station along both branches until 1972. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad also ran through this station but did not stop here.

The New York and Harlem Railroad expanded their main line across the Harlem River through Mott Haven into Williams Bridge from a bridge built in 1841. This bridge would be replaced in 1867, 1897, and 1956. A station named Mott Haven was know to exist as far back as 1858. The station was rebuilt in a much more elaborate fashion in 1886. It became a Richardson Romanesque structure designed by Robert Henderson Robertson, and was hailed as "the finest and most complete way station in the country. Originally at street level, the tracks were later raised above ground level as part of a grade elimination project in order to accommodate the 1897 version of the Park Avenue Bridge. A major grade elimination project in the Bronx north of the station between 1888 and 1890.

Throughout most of the station's existence, it has been in relatively close proximity to mass transit. In 1887, the Suburban Rapid Transit Company built an elevated station along the Third Avenue Elevated Line more than several blocks to the east. By 1918, their successors, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company expanded the IRT Jerome Avenue Line south from 149th Street to the Lexington Avenue Tunnel into the IRT Lexington Avenue Line in Harlem, and built a subway station beneath the vicinity of the railroad station. The subway station still exists as of this writing.