Great Neck

Great Neck is a station on the Long Island Rail Road's Port Washington Branch in Great Neck Plaza, New York. It is the westernmost station on the branch in Nassau County. The station is located at Middle Neck Road and Station Plaza at Great Neck Road, north of Northern Boulevard and from Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan. From just east of the station, the line becomes single track to Port Washington. History Great Neck was originally the terminus of the New York and Flushing Railroad when it was built in 1866 by a subsidiary called the North Shore Railroad, and called Brookdale Station. The NY&F was acquired by the Flushing and North Side Railroad in 1869, and the name was changed to Great Neck in 1872. The F&NS was consolidated into the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad in 1874 through a merger with the Central Railroad of Long Island, only to be leased in 1876 by the LIRR. Though Great Neck station served as a terminal station for much of the 19th century, it was never intended to stay this way. An attempt to extend the line east from the station toward Roslyn failed in 1882. Thirteen years later, wealthy Port Washington residents persuaded the LIRR to bring the terminus to their hometown. This required the construction of the Manhasset Viaduct over the marshes at the southern end of Manhasset Bay, which was authorized by an LIRR subsidiary called the Great Neck and Port Washington Railroad. On June 23, 1898, the first LIRR train passed through Great Neck to cross the Manhasset Viaduct, Long Island's highest railroad bridge, to extend the line through Manhasset, Plandome and Port Washington. In 1924, the station was closed; it was reopened at its current location on February 26, 1925. A grade crossing elimination project then brought the tracks below ground by June 8, 1934. Elevators are on both sides. The wall along the southeastern platform has an aluminum sculpture by artist David Saunders that was installed in 2001. The station recently received enhancements and modernizations, including Wi-Fi, new bike racks, and charging stations amongst other things, as part of a greater, systemwide initiative to upgrade stations and infrastructure.