The article discusses the abandoned Rockaway Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road in Queens, New York. This 3.5-mile stretch, abandoned since 1962, offers a striking juxtaposition of decaying infrastructure and flourishing nature. The line traverses parkland, valleys, and viaducts, showcasing nature's reclaiming of the man-made environment.
Over the decades, forests have grown, signal towers have fallen, and even coyotes have made their home amidst the abandoned tracks. In some areas, the tracks have become intertwined with trees and vegetation, creating visually interesting scenes. One striking example is a red maple tree that has grown around and folded a section of the steel track into its trunk.
Most of the abandoned line is managed by the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services. A one-mile section through Forest Park is publicly accessible, while the rest remains behind barriers and fences, despite some unauthorized access by locals and homeless individuals.
The article subtly compares the abandoned railway to the High Line, a successful repurposing of an old elevated railway into a public park. The comparison is implicit but suggests the potential for similar redevelopment in the future.
This railroad track hasn’t carried a train across central Queens in 63 years, and it is more strange and more beautiful for it. The Long Island Rail Road’s Rockaway Beach Branch once offered a 30-minute trip from Manhattan to New York City’s ocean beaches. Along the way it traversed three and a half miles of parkland valleys, earthen embankments and concrete viaducts from Forest Hills to Ozone Park.
The line was abandoned in 1962. And so nature pursued its messy designs. Forests grew. Signal towers fell. Coyotes colonized the dark bramble. In Rego Park, a section of track came unmoored from its fastening pins, and the rock ballast eroded. The track swayed free in the wind. A seedling fell between the stones. It became a red maple tree that grew and caught the rail, folding the steel I-beam into its bulbous trunk.
On a chilly day last winter, Jason Hofmann leaned down, framed the scene with his iPhone and took a picture.
“I like the way the branches move in the wind — it creates interesting geometry with the railroad tracks,” said Jason, 17, who lives nearby and occasionally walks the abandoned tracks. “It feels like nature taking over a war zone.”
Most of the old train line is managed by New York’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services. The middle section, a mile-long stretch through Forest Park, is open to the public. The rest lies behind razor wire, wobbly fences and hillsides of poison ivy. A few neighbors improvise ways to get inside, as do a handful of people who sleep under tarps.
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