Babbitt is a neighborhood in North Bergen Township in

Hudson County, New Jersey Hudson County is the most densely populated county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It lies west of the lower Hudson River, which was named for Henry Hudson, the sea captain who explored the area in 1609. Part of New Jersey's Gateway Region in t ...

, United States. The area, located west of

Tonnelle Avenue U.S. Route 1/9 (US 1/9) is the long concurrency of US 1 and US 9 from their junction in Woodbridge Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, north to New York City. The route is a multilane road with some freeway portions that runs through u ...

within the

New Jersey Meadowlands District New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

, is home to

light manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a range ...

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...

s, transportation facilities, and part of the

wetlands A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

preservation area known as the Eastern Brackish Marsh.

Babbitt's Best Soap

The name is taken from the company that produced ''Babbitt's Best Soap'', named after its founder,

Benjamin T. Babbitt Benjamin Talbot Babbitt (May 1, 1809 – October 20, 1889) was a self-made American businessman and inventor who amassed a fortune in the soap industry, manufacturing ''Babbitt's Best Soap''. Early life Benjamin Babbitt was born in Westmoreland ...

. In 1904 the company purchased a tract of between Granton and Fairview, and in 1907 relocated from its former premises, a facility on

West Street The Joe DiMaggio Highway, commonly called the West Side Highway and formerly the Miller Highway, is a mostly surface section of New York State Route 9A (NY 9A), running from West 72nd Street along the Hudson River to the southern t ...

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

. to what was then one of the largest soap manufacturing plants in the world.

Granton Junction and Babbitt station

The

West Shore Railroad The West Shore Railroad was the final name of a railroad that ran from Weehawken, New Jersey, on the west bank of the Hudson River opposite New York City, north to Albany, New York, and then west to Buffalo. It was organized as a competitor ...

, the

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie ...

Northern Branch The Northern Branch is a railroad line that runs from Jersey City to Northvale in northeastern New Jersey. The line was constructed in 1859 by the Northern Railroad of New Jersey to connect the New York and Erie Railroad's Piermont Branch ter ...

, and the New York, Susquehanna, and Western (NYSW) all passed through the area running parallel to each other. Both Erie and NYSW maintained minor

stations Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

nearby 83rd Street, which crossed under the

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

of the West Shore. Granton Junction was located just south of the stations and was where NYSW and Erie converged after the latter had also passed under the West Shore. For a time Granton was busy

railroad junction A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. This implies a physical connection between the tracks of the two routes (assuming they are of the same gauge), provided by ''points'' ( ...

used by both the Erie and NYSW, which shared track and stations, including the

Susquehanna Transfer Susquehanna Transfer was a passenger station on the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway, located in North Bergen, New Jersey located at what today is the Route 495 overpass. It was an interchange station where transfer was possible fr ...

. The name Granton comes from a former

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

that later was the site of an important fossil find of a

phytosaur Phytosaurs (Φυτόσαυροι in greek) are an extinct group of large, mostly semiaquatic Late Triassic archosauriform reptiles. Phytosaurs belong to the order Phytosauria. Phytosauria and Phytosauridae are often considered to be equivalent ...

. Joint operations between the Erie and NYSW were controlled by GR Tower, which in 1959 was destroyed by fire, ending the relationship. Originally the soap works were outfitted with rail spurs by the NYSW, but the soap company shifted more and more of its traffic to trucks, and in 1909 (apparently in retaliation for the loss of business), anonymous agents of the railroad removed the spur after temporarily imprisoning the factory's workers in a boxcar to prevent any interference. In August 1922, a full Sunday evening Erie train heading south to

Pavonia Terminal Pavonia Terminal was the Erie Railroad terminal on the Hudson River situated on the landfilled Harsimus Cove in Jersey City, New Jersey. The station opened in 1861 and closed in 1958 when the Erie Railroad moved its passenger services to nearby ...

was struck by bombs thrown at it in what was considered an act of sabotage and an attempt to cause a collision.

CSX and HBLR Northern Branch 91st Street station

The West Shore subsequently became

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

's River Line, and eventually the CSX River Subdivision which begins to the south at

North Bergen Yard The North Bergen Yard is freight rail yard and intermodal terminal in North Bergen, New Jersey parallel to Tonnelle Avenue between 49th and 69th Streets. Located within the North Jersey Shared Assets Area, the facility is part of CSX Transportatio ...

. Road access to its

Little Ferry Yard Little Ferry Yard is a railyard and Intermodal freight transport, intermodal terminal in the Port of New York and New Jersey served by the River Subdivision (CSX Transportation), CSX River Subdivision (CSXT), New York, Susquehanna and Western Railw ...

is located in Babbitt. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail extension into eastern

Bergen County Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Northern Branch Corridor Project The Northern Branch Corridor Project is a proposed extension of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) from its northern terminus into eastern Bergen County, New Jersey, initially proposed in 2001. If built, the new service would use the right-of-w ...

calls for the closure of the

at-grade crossing An intersection or an at-grade junction is a junction where two or more roads converge, diverge, meet or cross at the same height, as opposed to an interchange, which uses bridges or tunnels to separate different roads. Major intersections a ...

at 83rd Street and creation of a new one at 85th Street. A 91st Street (HBLR station) is planned.

References

{{Hudson County, New Jersey North Bergen, New Jersey Transportation in Hudson County, New Jersey Neighborhoods in Hudson County, New Jersey New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway CSX Transportation

Babbitt's Best Soap

Granton Junction and Babbitt station

CSX and HBLR Northern Branch 91st Street station

See also

References