Bruckner Interchange - History

History

The location of the interchange was originally the point where the Whitestone Parkway connected to Bruckner Boulevard (then-New York State Route 1A). In the early 1940s, the Hutchinson River Parkway was extended southward from Pelham Bay Park to Bruckner Boulevard, where it fed into the Whitestone Parkway. Bruckner Boulevard also served as the initial eastern endpoint of the Cross Bronx Expressway, the first section of which was built in the early 1950s and ran from the Bronx River Parkway to a point just west of the Hutchinson River Parkway. The section of Bruckner Boulevard between the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Hutchinson River Parkway was upgraded into a freeway shortly afterward.

Most of Bruckner Boulevard was ultimately converted into the Bruckner Expressway, with the boulevard name reassigned to one-way streets running along both sides of the freeway. By 1961, the freeway was complete from the Bronx River northeast to the Pelham Parkway, including in the vicinity of the Hutchinson River Parkway. The Cross Bronx Expressway Extension was also finished by this time. Both developments led to the construction of the modern Bruckner Interchange, which was designed to accommodate the reconstruction of Bruckner Boulevard and the opening of the Cross Bronx Extension while retaining the pre-existing connections with the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Hutchinson River Parkway.