Long Island Rail Road's Abandoned Cedarhurst Cut-Off

The Cedarhurst Cut-off is one of the abandoned branches of the Long Island Railroad. Incorporated as the New York and Rockaway Railroad in 1871, the abandoned section began near present day Laurelton Station and continued south in between Lansing and Edgewood Aves, crossing a bridge at North Woodmere Park, continuing down to Cedarhurst.

The branch has been abandoned and rebuilt twice, creating a rather complicated history of the relatively obscure line.

It was first abandoned after the LIRR took control in 1876, it was rebuilt in 1905, but was never put into revenue service and instead was only used to route equipment. 

Thirteen years later, it was abandoned again in 1918. It was rebuilt yet again in 1928 as a LIRR ploy to protect their right-of-way from development, but the branch was nonetheless considered redundant, and it was abandoned for good in 1934.


Despite not having a revenue train in the last 100 years, and not any development since before World War II, there are still small traces of the line that can be found even today, as the below picture demonstrates.

Looking north into Queens, at are wooden supports for what used to be a bridge crossing the water between Queens and Nassau Counties for the Cedarhurst Cutoff rail line. (Wikipedia Commons)



ARRTS Archives goes into great detail the property history of this line.

Thanks as always for reading!
Location: Cedarhurst, NY, USA

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