The Pavonia Ferry was a

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

service 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 ...

which conveyed passengers between

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 ...

and

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.New York City Hall New York City Hall is the Government of New York City, seat of New York City government, located at the center of City Hall Park in the Civic Center, Manhattan, Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan, between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, Park R ...

, in February 1854. The ferry takes its name for Pavonia, the first European settlement on the west bank of the Hudson first established in 1633 as part of

New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the East Coast of the United States, east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territor ...

and later expanded to region known as

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

. In February 1859 Nathaniel Marsh of 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 ...

Company purchased the lease on behalf of the Pavonia Ferry Company. He started a ferry which ran from

Chambers Street (Manhattan) Chambers Street is a two-way street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs from River Terrace, Battery Park City in the west, past PS 234 (the Independence School), The Borough of Manhattan Community College, and Stuyvesant High S ...

to the foot of Pavonia Avenue on the other side of the

Hudson Waterfront The Hudson Waterfront is an urban area of northeastern New Jersey along the lower reaches of the Hudson River, the Upper New York Bay and the Kill van Kull. Though the term can specifically mean the shoreline, it is often used to mean the contigu ...

. Legal problems had prevented the Pavonia Ferry Company from establishing a ferry along this route. The

New York and 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 ...

paid an annual rent of $9,050 to transport passengers back and forth. Eventually the railroad constructed its

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 landfilled

Harsimus Cove Harsimus (also known as Harsimus Cove) is a neighborhood within Downtown Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The neighborhood stretches from the Harsimus Stem Embankment (the Sixth Street Embankment) on the north to Christophe ...

. Suburban and long distance travellers would transfer from trains to boats for the passage across the river. Service to 23rd Street began in 1869. A January 18, 1903 letter from a

Passaic, New Jersey Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 70,537, ranking as the 16th largest municipality in New Jersey and an increase of 656 from the 69,78 ...

reader to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', commented about the inadequacy of the boats of the Pavonia Ferry, which was then the property of the Erie Railroad. "All their boats are old, small and entirely inadequate to accommodate the crowds during rush hours." The vessels then in use by the Erie Railroad, listed with first year of service, were: ''Pavonia'' (1861), ''Susquehanna'' (1865), ''Delaware'' (1868), ''Chatauqua'' (1868), ''Passaic'' (1869), ''Ridgewood'' (1873), ''Paterson'' (1886), and ''J.G. McCullough'' (1891).{{cite news , title=Pavonia Ferry Service , url=https://www.nytimes.com/1903/01/20/archives/pavonia-ferry-service.html , newspaper=

, date=January 20, 1903 , page=8 , accessdate=2010-05-15

References

External links

and ''Pavonia'' collision
1854 establishments in New Jersey Companies based in New Jersey Transport companies established in 1854 Ferries of New Jersey Ferries of New York City Ferry companies of New Jersey Ferry companies of New York City Water transportation in New York City Transportation in Hudson County, New Jersey

See also

References

External links