North Bergen was a railroad station in
North Bergen
North Bergen is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township had a total population of 63,361. The township was founded in 1843. It was much diminished in territory by ...
,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, United States known Homestead for most of its existence. It as built in the mid 19th century and served by the
New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (#1059) and 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 Er ...
's
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 te ...
(#1903).
![HomesteadNorthBergen1880](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/HomesteadNorthBergen1880.png)
The station was located at the foot of the
Bergen Hill
Bergen Hill refers to the lower Hudson Palisades in New Jersey, where they emerge on Bergen Neck, which in turn is the peninsula between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers, and their bays. In Hudson County, it reaches a height of 260 feet.
Rai ...
at
Paterson Plank Road
Paterson Plank Road is a road that runs through Passaic, Bergen and Hudson Counties in northeastern New Jersey. The route, originally laid in the colonial era, connects the city of Paterson and the Hudson River waterfront. It has largely been su ...
west what is now
Tonnele Avenue. The village then known as Homestead lay on western slope of lower
Hudson Palisades
The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson River Palisades, are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in Northeastern New Jersey and Southeastern New York in the United States. The cliffs s ...
below
Schuetzen Park. The abutting village of
New Durham was to the north; an eponymous station was located at what is now 50th Street adjacent to
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 ...
and the present day terminus of the
Hudson–Bergen Light Rail
The Hudson–Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) is a light rail system in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Owned by New Jersey Transit (NJT) and operated by the 21st Century Rail Corporation, it connects the communities of Bayonne, Jersey Ci ...
at
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 ...
.
Babbitt
Babbitt may refer to:
Fiction
* ''Babbitt'' (novel), a 1922 novel by Sinclair Lewis
** ''Babbitt'' (1924 film), a 1924 silent film based on the novel
** ''Babbitt'' (1934 film), a 1934 film based on the novel
*Babbit, the family name of the titl ...
, the northernmost station in the township, was at 83rd Street.
The right of way was originally developed by the
Paterson and Hudson River Railroad
The Paterson and Hudson River Railroad was a railroad that operated in New Jersey and connected the cities of Jersey City and southeast Paterson. The railroad was started in 1833.
The company was the first in the United States to build moveable ...
(Erie) in the 1850s. The
New Jersey Midland, a predecessor of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYSW), built its line to its terminus a West End Junction circa 1873 and had
trackage rights
Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies.
Operating
Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may ...
south of that point. Homestead was from the Erie's
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 ...
on 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 ...
waterfront in
Jersey City, which was originally reached by the
Long Dock Tunnel
The Long Dock Tunnel is a freight rail tunnel in Jersey City, New Jersey that is part of the North Jersey Shared Assets Area and used by CSX Transportation on the National Docks Secondary. The single track (formerly dual track) tunnel runs thro ...
, and later by
Bergen Arches. Passenger service on the line was discontinued in 1966.
The station house was demolished, as were most others along Northern Branch, though former station buildings along the line at
Englewood,
Tenafly,
Demarest, Closter, and
Piermont still stand. Extant station buildings from the New Jersey Midland/NYSW can be found at
Wortendyke,
Butler, and
Newfoundland, among other places.
The rail line is still used for freight transport by
CSX
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
as part of the
Conrail Shared Assets Area
Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) is the commonly used name for modern-day Conrail (reporting mark CRCX), an American railroad company. It operates three networks, the North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit Shared Assets Areas ...
and the NYSW mainline.
Northern Branch Corridor Project Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement, March 17, 2017 (PDF))
/ref>
See also
* Timeline of Jersey City, New Jersey-area railroads
* NYSW (passenger 1939–1966) map
* Northern Branch map
* Operating Passenger Railroad Stations Thematic Resource
References
{{New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway stations
North Bergen, New Jersey
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1872
Railway stations in Hudson County, New Jersey
Former railway stations in New Jersey
Former Erie Railroad stations
Former New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway stations