The Edgewater Branch was a branch of the

New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (or New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad and also known as the Susie-Q or the Susquehanna) is a Class II American freight railway operating over 400 miles (645 km) of track in th ...

(NYS&W) that ran about through eastern

Bergen County, New Jersey Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.rail 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'' ( ...

at the

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 ...

(in Ridgefield), it went east through the

Edgewater Tunnel The Edgewater Branch was a branch of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYS&W) that ran about through eastern Bergen County, New Jersey in the United States. Starting from a rail junction at the Little Ferry Yard (in Ridgefield), it ...

to Undercliff (as Edgewater was once known) to the Hudson Waterfront.

History

The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway handled passenger and freight traffic from the

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

region in the Lackawanna Valley in and around Scranton, Pennsylvania through northern New Jersey. While it had a line running along the foot of the western slope of Hudson Palisades that terminated in

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Marion Junction it owned no

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 ...

through Bergen Hill. The railroad paid substantial fees to both the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

(PRR) (for passenger trains) and the

Delaware, Lackawanna and Western The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey (and by ferry with New York City), a distance of . Incorporated in ...

(DL&W) (for freight service) to use their lines to terminals on the North River. The Hudson River Railroad and Terminal Company was incorporated as a New York Susquehanna and Western Railway subsidiary in 1892. The NYSW developed a terminal on what had once been a coal yard for oceangoing ships along the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

shore. At the time 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 ...

held a controlling interest in the line. In 1907, Erie Terminals Railroad took control of the Edgewater and Fort Lee Railroad which ran to the Hudson County line and connected with the

New Jersey Shore Line Railroad The New Jersey Shore Line Railroad was part of the New York Central Railroad and ran along the Hudson River in New Jersey, from the West Shore Railroad (NYCRR) yards at Guttenberg, New Jersey, Guttenberg north to the Erie Terminals Railroad at t ...

, eventually becoming part of a Belt Line along the shore. Extensive railyards and car float operations supported the development of industries which dominated the shoreline for much of the 20th century. Among them were Alcoa Aluminum,

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

Lever Brothers Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making p ...

, Valvoline Oil Company, and

Archer-Daniels-Midland The Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, commonly known as ADM, is an American multinational food processing and commodities trading corporation founded in 1902 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The company operates more than 270 plants and 42 ...

. Eventually the factories closed as industry globalized, facilities became obsolete, and shipping in the

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

shifted to trucking and containerization. The closure of Ford's Edgewater Assembly Plant in 1955 saw the loss of one of the line's biggest clients.

Edgewater Tunnel

The Edgewater Tunnel is a former railroad tunnel through Bergen Hill, the Hudson Palisades. Originally opened in 1894, it was built to gain access to the Hudson River waterfront. About underground and about long, its western cut and

portal Portal often refers to: * Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel Portal may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...

is located in the Fairview Cemetery in Fairview and the eastern portal is located in Edgewater. The right-of-way was removed from service in about 1992 and the track was removed shortly thereafter. A

pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...

now runs through the tunnel between Hess facilities in Bogota and Edgewater. A power cable, part of the

Hudson Project The Hudson Project is a 345 kV AC Overhead power line, powerline for the power supply of New York City from PSEG's Bergen Generating Station, in Ridgefield, New Jersey. It was laid by Anbaric Development Partners. Overview It consists of a HVDC ba ...

, running from a Bergen Generating Station substation through the tunnel and under the Hudson to

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

, was completed in 2013.

Status

The branch line remains in partial use between Undercliff Junction in Ridgefield and the bridge at US Route 1/9 in Fairview east of Route 1/9, but trackage through the cut and tunnel was removed in October 1992. The right-of-way itself has not been

abandoned Abandon, abandoned, or abandonment may refer to: Common uses * Abandonment (emotional), a subjective emotional state in which people feel undesired, left behind, insecure, or discarded * Abandonment (legal), a legal term regarding property ** Chi ...

. During the 1980s and early 1990s, planners and government officials realized that alternative transportation systems needed to be put in place to relieve increasing congestion along the Hudson Waterfront It was decided that the most efficient and cost-effective system to meet the growing demands of the area would be a light rail system. When a new transportation network was proposed, it was suggested that the tunnel be used for what became the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, but that idea was ultimately rejected in favor of the

Weehawken Tunnel Weehawken is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located largely on the Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 17,197.

. The Hudson Waterfront/River Road corridor has seen extensive residential and commercial development and subsequent congestion since that time, and further studies of a more comprehensive transportation strategy have been conducted. A station along the line at the Vince Lombardi Park & Ride is part of the proposed Passaic–Bergen–Hudson Transit Project.

Notes

References

* * * * * * {{cite book , last=Tupaczewski , first=Paul R. , title=New York, Susquehanna and Western in color , location=Scotch Plains, NJ , publisher=Morning Sun Books , year=2002 , isbn=1-5824-8070-2

External links