Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne (MOTBY) was a U.S. military ocean terminal located in the

Port of New York and New Jersey The Port of New York and New Jersey is the port district of the New York-Newark metropolitan area, encompassing the region within approximately a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. It includes the system of navigable water ...

which operated from 1967 to 1999. From 1942 to 1967 the site was the Bayonne Naval Drydock. The site is on

Upper New York Bay New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...

south of

Port Jersey Port Jersey, officially the Port Jersey Port Authority Marine Terminal and referred to as the Port Jersey Marine Terminal, is an intermodal freight transport facility that includes a container terminal located on the Upper New York Bay in the ...

on the eastern side of Bayonne,

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 ...

. Since its closure, it has undergone maritime, residential, commercial, and recreational mixed-use development. Part of the

Hudson River Waterfront Walkway The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, also known as the Hudson River Walkway, is a promenade along the Hudson Waterfront in New Jersey. The ongoing and incomplete project located on Kill van Kull and the western shore of Upper New York Bay and th ...

runs along its perimeter.

History

In 1932, a basic plan was initiated to build a port terminal off the east coast of Bayonne into the bay to create additional industrial, maritime, and distribution space. After the plan was completed in 1939, dredging and filling began. At the outbreak of World War II, the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

was looking for a location for a port on the East Coast and became interested in the site for a large

dry-dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

and supply center. The Bayonne Naval Drydock base was opened by the Navy in 1942 as a logistics (Bayonne Naval Supply Depot) and repair base, well connected to the transportation network of the Northeast Corridor. After the war the site became port for part of the

Atlantic Reserve Fleet The United States Navy maintains a number of its ships as part of a reserve fleet, often called the "Mothball Fleet". While the details of the maintenance activity have changed several times, the basics are constant: keep the ships afloat and s ...

or the ''Mothball Fleet'', Atlantic Reserve Fleet, New York and later a Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF). The administration of Mayor James J. Donovan lobbied the Navy to locate the base in Bayonne and the trips by Washington officials, including the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, resulted in the base being located in Bayonne. Mayor Donovan's role was finally recognized in December, 2015 when the Bayonne City officials and VFW groups dedicated a park in his honor at the base. The ceremony featured the Mayor, Town Council, many Veteran groups, and Donovan family descendants, including his son and daughter. In 1967, the peninsula became a

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

base. It was a large shipping terminal by the standards of the day, and had the largest

on the eastern seaboard. Once cargo arrived at MOTBY, it could be placed directly into covered warehouses, or onto uncovered, but fully secure staging areas. All types of cargo, from heavy, outsized weapons such as the M1A2 tank and the

Patriot missile The MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the primary of its kind used by the United States Army and several allied states. It is manufactured by the U.S. defense contractor Raytheon and derives its name from the radar compon ...

, to the full range of munitions available to fighting forces could be loaded by Bayonne's specially trained unionized work force using state of the art, dedicated rail lines. Every type of roll-on/roll-off vessel in the Military Sealift Command (MSC) inventory could be accommodated. This capability was used during the Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991) and during operations in Somalia and Haiti. Dozens of military units (men and equipment) were shipped through MOTBY, as was outsized cargo such as M1A2 tanks from as far as

Fort Hood, Texas Fort Hood is a United States Army post located near Killeen, Texas. Named after Confederate General John Bell Hood, it is located halfway between Austin and Waco, about from each, within the U.S. state of Texas. The post is the headquarter ...

. The facility closed in 1999 under a US

Base Realignment and Closure Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) is a process by a United States federal government commission to increase United States Department of Defense efficiency by coordinating the realignment and closure of military installations following the end ...

1995 directive. On August 8th, 2021, the last two buildings of the facility were destroyed to make way for a UPS regional distribution hub. The demolition marked the end of a three year project to bring down the facility to make way for UPS.

Redevelopment

After closure, bids to permanently berth the battleship USS New Jersey, which had been decommissioned at the

from 1948 to 1967, were unsuccessful. The long pier has since been renamed The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor by the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority (BLRA) and is being redeveloped into a mix-used waterfront community of residential, light industrial, commercial, and recreational space. Construction is planned to take place in phases, with one section of housing currently completed. A memorial park for the

Tear of Grief ''To the Struggle Against World Terrorism'' (also known as the ''Tear of Grief'' and the ''Tear Drop Memorial'') is a 10–story sculpture by Zurab Tsereteli that was given to the United States as an official gift from the Russian government as a ...

, commemorating

September 11th, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

and the

Cape Liberty Cruise Port The Cape Liberty Cruise Port is one of three trans-Atlantic passenger terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey. It is located in Bayonne, New Jersey at the north side of the long pier of the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, a former military ...

are located at the end of the long pier. In 2005, eight PCC trolley cars from the

Newark City Subway The Newark Light Rail (NLR) is a light rail system serving Newark, New Jersey and surrounding areas, operated by New Jersey Transit Bus Operations. The service consists of two segments, the original Newark City Subway (NCS), and the extension t ...

were given to the Bayonne to be rehabilitated and operated along a proposed loop to connect to the 34th Street station of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. Much of the HBO prison drama '' Oz'' was filmed around MOTBY.Wright, E. Assata. "Getting the film crews back to NJ", ''

The Union City Reporter ''The Hudson Reporter'' is a newspaper chain based in Hudson County, New Jersey. ''The Hudson Reporter'' publications mainly focus on local politics and community news. The oldest newspaper in the chain is the ''Hoboken Reporter'', founded in 1983. ...

'', February 13, 2011, Pages 5 and 7

Port Authority purchase

In 2010, the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorize ...

purchased along the waterfront for future use. The Port Authority said it would likely not use the land for housing as currently zoned, indicating that additional port facilities would be created. On July 29, the city council approved the sale at a price of $235 million, to be paid out over 24 years, much less than the city had hoped to earn from developing the property for housing. However economic conditions were not favorable to that project, which envisioned 6,700 housing units, and the city needed the cash to balance its budget. The Port Authority planned to develop the property as a container port capable of handling the larger container ships in service after the new, wider

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

opened. Some of these new ships would not fit under the original

Bayonne Bridge Bayonne Bridge is an arch bridge spanning the Kill Van Kull and connecting Bayonne, New Jersey with Staten Island in New York City. It carries New York State Route 440 (NY 440) and New Jersey Route 440. It is the sixth-longes ...

, preventing them from reaching the large container facilities at

Port Newark 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 Ha ...

and Port Elizabeth, however, the roadway on the Bayonne Bridge has been replaced with a higher one, removing that obstacle to shipping. Transhipment of containers to the national rail network from the property would be possible via the

National Docks Secondary National Docks Secondary is a freight rail line within Conrail's North Jersey Shared Assets Area in Hudson County, New Jersey, used by CSX Transportation. It provides access for the national rail network to maritime, industrial, and distributi ...

line using

Lehigh Valley Railroad Bridge The Upper Bay Bridge, or the Lehigh Valley Railroad Bridge, is a vertical lift bridge spanning the Newark Bay in northeastern New Jersey. It is used by CSX Transportation travelling through the North Jersey Shared Assets Area of the United Stat ...

over Newark Bay, to 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 ...

through

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 ...

. Originally, a condition of the land sale was that the monuments to United States Marines who fought in the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, and the ''

'' would be relocated. However, the move is no longer planned. In 2015, the Bayonne City Council settled lawsuits with the original developers of the property. As part of the settlement, the Port Authority agreed not to develop its land as a container port for 30 years. Residential development of the western and southern portions of the peninsula will go forward, including a pedestrian bridge over Route 440 connecting to the 34th Street HBLR station.

Ferry service

The city rented land from PANYNJ and negotiated with SeaStreak to establish ferry service to Manhattan to begin in September 2020. With delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other causes, service was rescheduled to 2022.

References

External links