Whitestone Branch

The Whitestone Branch was a branch of the Long Island Rail Road, running north and east along the left bank of the Flushing River from the Port Washington Branch near the modern Willets Point, Flushing. It crossed the river on one of the three bridges later torn down for the Van Wyck Expressway, then ran north along Flushing Bay and east along the East River to Whitestone. Originally conceived as a branch of the Flushing and North Side Railroad that was intended to lead into Westchester County (a connection that never materialized) in 1869, it was consolidated into the Long Island Rail Road in 1876 when its owners, the Poppenhusen family, took over the bankrupt LIRR.

In the 1920's the branch began to lose patronage and the LIRR sought to rid itself of the line. There was a proposal for the city owned IND subway to buy the line and incorporate it into the subway system. The deal never panned out most likely due the numerous grade crossings that would have cost the city a large amount of money to remove. The Interstate Commerce Commission allowed the LIRR to abandon the line in 1932. Most of the branch was removed with the exeception of a small section of the line leading to the Corona yard which remained well into the 1970's when the LIRR closed the Corona yard. Today only a small section of track, just east of the former Shea Stadium station, remains branching off from the Port Washington branch. The Flushing-Main Street station of the Port Washington Branch was so named to distinguish it from the Whitestone's Flushing-Bridge Street station. Despite the closing of the Bridge Street station the LIRR continues to use "Main Street" on signs and timetables to this day (2009).