Facing north on the four-lane concrete dead-end that is the southern stub in Ossining. Rather than maintain or replace the bridge that used to be ahead, NYSDOT built a new one to the west that would have taken I-487 up the east shore of the Hudson had that concept gone through (or even the original plan for I-87), but instead now carries US 9/NY 9A. Pre-freeway, 9A had ended at the interchange just to the south, because there was no old alignment of 9 yet. Notice that the building at the end had a concrete turn lane back when this was a through road.


Back up the short old alignment as far as it goes. The piece on the north shore is much longer and more interesting:


Walking north from the concrete on the northern bridge abutment, through the grass where the pavement was torn up, to the part of the old four-lane highway that now serves as parking for Van Cortlandt Manor.


The way to approach the alignment, southbound from Croton-on-Hudson and ignoring all of the signs taking NY 9A traffic back to the current US 9 alignment (Croton Expressway). As you see, just because pavement was torn up doesn't mean there aren't still underground utilities that may need maintenance, though if there's anything down there still in use it should get more obvious access than a manhole set in grass.


A chunk of original concrete pavement embedded in the ground.


Guiderail on the left (NB side), guiderail on the right (SB side), and between those two photos, an old concrete post on the NB side. It doesn't look like a cable guiderail post, so I'm not sure of its original function.


An old sign on the SB side that is either from when this highway was still in service or immediately after it was taken out, and then the southern end of the grass alignment. I think the guiderails are there because as you saw above, authorized vehicles can still access the road up till now, but going further runs the risk of crashing into the Croton River.


Walking over or around the guiderail (or possibly between the two, if skinny enough), the concrete resumes in much poorer condition. In the second photo you can see one of the slabs upheaved, and then everything drops off abruptly at the bridge stub. You can see the other side's abutment in the last photo. Notice what you couldn't see from the north side: the original bridge here was only two lanes wide, even though the approach road on either side was four lanes.


Looking west at the current Croton River bridge.


No trespassing? Oops, let's pretend this page never happened.

Onto modern US 9

North onto NY 9A
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