The Middlesex Greenway is a
rail trail
A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...
in
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 ...
Metuchen
Metuchen ( ) is a suburban Borough (New Jersey), borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The borough is a commuter town of New York City, located in the heart of the Raritan River, Raritan Valley reg ...
,
Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...
and
Woodbridge Woodbridge may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Woodbridge, Western Australia formerly called ''West Midland''
*Woodbridge, Tasmania
Canada
*Woodbridge, Ontario
England
*Woodbridge, Suffolk, the location of
** Woodbridge (UK Parliament constituency ...
. It is part of the
Middlesex County Park System.
It makes up a portion of the
East Coast Greenway
The East Coast Greenway is a pedestrian and bicycle route between Maine and Florida along the East Coast of the United States. In 2020, the Greenway received over 50 million visits.
The nonprofit East Coast Greenway Alliance was created in 1991. ...
.
The trail begins at Crows Mill Road near William Street in the Fords/Keasbey section of Woodbridge and terminates in Metuchen at Middlesex Avenue, with 12 entry points.
Construction costs were $5 million.
Expansion to
Perth Amboy
Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey. Perth Amboy is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 55,436. Perth Amboy has a Hispanic majority population. In the 2010 census, th ...
and
South Plainfield has also been proposed.
History
The trail's roadbed originates from the
Easton & Amboy Railroad created by the
Lehigh Valley Railroad
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, w ...
in 1875 to transport
anthracite
Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the hig ...
coal to a transfer dock in Perth Amboy for subsequent delivery to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. The line was consolidated into
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 ...
with other bankrupt railroads in 1976, and abandoned in 1991.
Using open space funds,
Middlesex County purchased the roadbed from Conrail in December 2002 for approximately $50,000.
In 2004 Edison elected officials challenged
NJDOT
The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transportat ...
's plan to replace an original railroad trestle with a 140-foot-long tunnel-like structure to carry the trail under
US Route 1
U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...
. The proposed
culvert
A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...
would have reduced the trail's capacity to a 14-foot-wide by 10-foot-high passageway, potentially preventing
mounted police
Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. Their day-to-day function is typically picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and increasingly in the ...
from traversing the highway.
NJDOT eventually agreed to construct a
pedestrian
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or pavement, but this was not the case historically.
The meaning of pedestrian is displayed with ...
bridge in lieu of the culvert.
In 2005 Middlesex County acquired 2.68 acres of land adjacent to the trail to build a park along a portion of the abandoned roadbed at a cost of $1.25 million Middlesex
County and $100,000 from Metuchen.
Route description
The trail starts on Middlesex Avenue in Metutchen, and goes through an initial section which goes Southeast, and goes under the North East Corridor tracks. Upon leaving the underpass, the trail turns more eastward, and goes parallel to Memorial Parkway right alongside the Memorial Park, and then goes under Route 27. After crossing Route 27, the trail goes into a below street level section which continues under a footbridge at Graham Avenue, and shortly after goes under Route 531. The Greenway continues through a residential area in Metutchen, before the trail crosses the border into Edison and arrives at Pierson Avenue. The trail then goes over Route 1 on an overpass, which comes down after crossing into the Clara Barton section of Edison. The trail then crosses through Starkin Road, and then crosses Jackson Avenue right next to Herbert Hoover Middle School. The greenway crosses Liddle Avenue, and then goes under the New Jersey Turnpike before arriving at Woodbridge Avenue, which the trail crosses. The trail goes through several more blocks alongside residential homes, before going under King Georges Post Road at the Edison/Woodbridge Border, parallel to Route 440. The greenway goes next to the Hillside Gardens apartments before crossing under Crows Mill Road. The trail ends about a block before the Garden State Parkway.
Trail heads
*
Woodbridge Woodbridge may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Woodbridge, Western Australia formerly called ''West Midland''
*Woodbridge, Tasmania
Canada
*Woodbridge, Ontario
England
*Woodbridge, Suffolk, the location of
** Woodbridge (UK Parliament constituency ...
, Crows Mill Road, Woodbridge
*
Metuchen
Metuchen ( ) is a suburban Borough (New Jersey), borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The borough is a commuter town of New York City, located in the heart of the Raritan River, Raritan Valley reg ...
, Middlesex Avenue, Metuchen
See also
*
Assunpink Trail The Assunpink Trail was a Native American trail in what later became Middlesex, Somerset, and Mercer counties in the central and western part of New Jersey. Like Assunpink Creek, the trail takes its name from the Algonquian language ''Ahsën'pin ...
*
Delaware and Raritan Canal Trail
The D&R Canal trail is a recreational trail in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The trail is made up of three segments that transverse three counties: a canal towpath from New Brunswick to Trenton; a canal towpath/ rail trail from Trenton to Bull' ...
*
Henry Hudson Trail
The Henry Hudson Trail is a rail trail in western and northern Monmouth County, New Jersey. The trail is named for Henry Hudson, who explored the harbor at Atlantic Highlands and the Raritan Bayshore coastline in the early 1600s. The trail is not ...
*
Lenape Trail
The Lenape Trail is a trail through Essex County, connecting many county parks and reservations, wooded spaces, and historical sites. It begins in Newark, New Jersey and ends in Millburn, New Jersey. It was established in 1982. It is the fifth l ...
*
West Essex Trail
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
References
{{Rail trails in New Jersey
Rail trails in New Jersey
Transportation in Middlesex County, New Jersey
Metuchen, New Jersey
Woodbridge Township, New Jersey
Bike paths in New Jersey
Greenways