Weehawken Terminal

For present-day ferry, trolley, and bus service, see Weehawken Port Imperial.

Weehawken Terminal and others, ca. 1900

Weehawken Terminal was the waterfront intermodal terminal on the Hudson River in Weehawken, New Jersey for the New York Central Railroad's West Shore Railroad division. It opened in 1884 and closed in 1959. The complex contained five ferry slips, sixteen passenger train tracks, car float facilities, and extensive yards. The facility was also used by the New York, Ontario and Western Railway.

Weehawken Ferry

A patent for a ferry route from Weehawken to Manhattan was first granted by Governor of New York Richard Coote in 1700. It was a sail and row service later superseded by steamboat service, notably at Hoboken in 1834. The route then operated sporadically for years, and became object of a legislative investigation in 1870. It was purchased by the New Jersey Midland Railway in 1871. From 1913 until the 1927 opening of the Holland Tunnel, it was a component of the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway in the United States, which began at Times Square, crossed the river, and travelled up Hudson Palisades along Pershing Road. In addition to 42nd Street, boats also travelled to Cortland Street. The Weehawken was the last ferry to the West Shore Terminal on March 25, 1959 at 1:10 am, ending 259 years of continuous ferry service.

Railroad Lines

File:New Jersey Junction Railroad 1921.jpg

NYC's New Jersey Junction Railroad connnected to facilities on waterfront to the south

West Shore Railroad crossing in Tappan, New York

The West Shore Railroad maintained extensive routes to the north and west. The New York Central bought the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway on November 24, 1885 and reorganized their new acquisition as the West Shore Railroad on December 5, immediately leasing it for 475 years from January 1, 1886. Trains departed the terminal and travelled under Bergen Hill, as the southern portion of the Hudson Palisades were known in a tunnel that had been built in the three preceding years. They travelled inland and north along the Palisade ridge between the competing Erie Railroad Northern Branch and Pascack Valley Line. At Haverstraw the route returned to the river proceeding north to Kingston and Albany and evenutally to Buffalo. Suburban service to the Northern Valley in Bergen County and Rockland County included stops at Bogota, Dumont, Tappan, and Nyack. In the early 1990s there were studies made to consider the revival of service along the right-of-way to Nyack. The NYO&W mainline rain to Oswego, a port city on Lake Ontario. It had branch lines to Scranton, Pennsylvania and to Kingston; Port Jervis; Dehli; Utica and Rome in New York State. Using the same tunnel, the New York Central also operated the New Jersey Junction Railroad south to Jersey City and the New Jersey Shore Line Railroad north to Edgewater. Portions of that right of way became part of the subsequently abandoned River Line (Conrail).

Streetcars

Between 1892-1949 streetcars, initially operated by the North Hudson County Railway, and later the Public Service Railway as lines 19 Union City, 21 West New York, 23 Palisade, 25 Weehawken, ran along Pershing Road providing local access to the terminal. For a brief period in the 1890s the terminal was also served by a massive elevator structure which transported passengers to a trestle where they could board streetcars to the Eldorado, a pleasure garden which overlooked it, and Nungesser´s Guttenberg Ractrack.

Site

US Airways Flight 1549 and ferry in Hudson with Pier D in background

The Weehawken waterfront is located north of Weehawken Cove on a long narrow strip of land between the Hudson River and Hudson Palisades that in the last centuries has been transformed from an estuary flood zone once called Slough's Meadow to an extensive rail and shipping port and, since the 1990s to a residential and recreation area. Many duels, including the famous 1804 the Burr–Hamilton duel took place on a site latter obliterated by rail infrastructure. The Erie Railroad (which maintained extensive yards, docks, and barges) Pier D and Piershed is a remnant of the rail era that is New Jersey Register of Historic Places site designated in 1984. renovated and used as office space. The United Fruit Company once maintained the largest banana warehouse in the USA nearby. The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway is a partially completed promendade along the bulkhead. On a much smaller scale there has been a restoration of rail and ferry services to the area. The Hudson Bergen Light Rail's Port Imperial station opened in 2006. New York Waterway, which opened its new passenger ferry terminal in 2006 at the foot of Pershing Road. Boats travel to Pier 79 at West 39th Street and the Pier 11 at South Street Seaport. In 2009, the terminal was instrumental in the rescue of passengers for US Airways Flight 1549, which made an emergency landing on the Hudson River.

See also

• Bergen Hill
• Bergenline Station
• Timeline of Jersey City area railroads
• List of ferries across the Hudson River in New York City
• Railroad terminals in New York City
• List of Public Service Railway lines
• New York Central Railroad 69th Street Transfer Bridge
• New York Central Tugboat 13

External links

• West Shore Railroad
• History of the Hudson River Ferries
• Weehawken Ferry Terminal Project Unveiled at NJ Transit Board of Directors Meeting(New Jersey Transit)
• Design and construction of the Weehawken Tunnel and Bergenline Avenue Station for the Hudson-Bergen Light-Rail Transit System (PDF file)
• Old Weehawken Ferry Ship Dan Rice, Chopper 4 (Today in New York; Thursday, June 14, 2007)
• GUIDE TO THE MOST USEFUL FERRIES by Theodore W. Scull
• Old Photo of Terminal
• West Shore memoir
• Street Terminal photo
• Comments on the West Shore from Bergenfield
• Erie proposes Northern trains be rerouted to Weehawken Terminal
• New York, Ontario and Western ROW
• NY Times: 1997 NJT study funding