Weehawken Terminal was the waterfront intermodal terminal on the

North River (Hudson River) North River () is an alternative name for the southernmost portion of the Hudson River in the vicinity of New York City and Gateway Region, northeastern New Jersey in the United States. History Name In the early 17th century, the entire wat ...

Weehawken, New Jersey Weehawken is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located on the Hudson Waterfront and Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's po ...

for the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

West Shore Railroad The West Shore Railroad was a U.S. railway company active in the states of New York and New Jersey between 1885 and 1952. It was incorporated in 1885 to reorganize the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway, which had originally been inten ...

division, whose route traveled along the west shore of the Hudson River. It opened in 1884 and closed in 1959. The complex contained five ferry slips, sixteen passenger train tracks,

car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of Lighter (barge), lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it i ...

facilities, and extensive yards. The facility was also used by the New York, Ontario and Western Railway. The terminal was one of five passenger railroad terminals that lined 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 contig ...

during the 19th and 20th centuries; the others were located at Hoboken, Pavonia, Exchange Place and Communipaw, with Hoboken being the only one still in use. Today, the site is the location of Weehawken Port Imperial, an inter-modal transit hub used by New Jersey Transit buses, the Hudson Bergen Light Rail and New York Waterway.

Weehawken Ferry

A patent for a ferry route from Weehawken to

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

was first granted by Governor of New York Richard Coote in 1700. It was a sail and row service later superseded by steamboat service, notably at Hoboken in 1834. The route then operated sporadically for years, and became the object of a legislative investigation in 1870. It was purchased by the New Jersey Midland Railway in 1871. From 1913 until the 1927 opening of the

Holland Tunnel The Holland Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River that connects Hudson Square and Lower Manhattan in New York City in the east to Jersey City, New Jersey, in the west. The tunnel is operated by the Port Authority of New York an ...

, it was a component of the National Old Trails Road and the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is one of the first transcontinental highways in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated Octob ...

, two of the oldest transcontinental highways in the United States. Both began at

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

, crossed the river and traveled up

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 ...

along Pershing Road. In addition to 42nd Street, boats also traveled to Cortlandt Street Ferry Depot in lower Manhattan. The ''Weehawken'' was the last ferry to the terminal on March 25, 1959, at 1:10 am, ending 259 years of continuous ferry service. In 1986, New York Waterway reinstated passenger ferry service to Weehawken with the construction of a new ferry terminal. Ferries travel to Pier 79, Battery Park City Ferry Terminal. and Pier 11/Wall Street.

Railroad lines

The West Shore Railroad maintained extensive routes to the north and west. The

New York Central The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

bought the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway on November 24, 1885, and reorganized its new acquisition as the West Shore Railroad on December 5, immediately leasing it for 475 years from January 1, 1886. Trains departed the terminal and traveled under Bergen Hill, as the southern portion of the

is known, in the Weehawken Tunnel: a tunnel that had been built in the three preceding years. They traveled inland and north along the Palisade ridge between the competing

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Northeastern United States, originally connecting Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, with Lake Erie at Dunkirk, New York. The railroad expanded west to Chicago following its 1865 ...

Northern Branch and Pascack Valley Line. At Haverstraw the route returned to the river and proceeded north to Kingston and Albany, and eventually to Buffalo. Suburban service to the Northern Valley in

Bergen County Bergen County is the List of counties in New Jersey, most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Rockland County included stops at Bogota, Dumont, Tappan, and Nyack. In the early 1990s there were studies made to consider the revival of service along the right-of-way to Nyack. The NYO&W mainline ran to Oswego, a port city on

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

. It had branch lines to

Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Scranton is the most populous city in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the ...

and to Kingston; Port Jervis;

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

; Utica and

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

in New York. Using the same tunnel, the New York Central also operated the New Jersey Junction Railroad south to

Jersey City Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

and the New Jersey Shore Line Railroad north to Edgewater. The NYO&W last had passenger service to Weehawken on September 10, 1953. Portions of those rights-of-way became part of Conrail's

River Line The River Line (stylized as River LINE) is a hybrid rail (light rail with some features similar to commuter rail) service in South Jersey, southern New Jersey that connects the cities of Camden, New Jersey, Camden and Trenton, New Jersey, Trento ...

and subsequently the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail.

Other transportation

Between 1892 and 1949 streetcars, initially operated by the North Hudson County Railway and later the Public Service Railway as lines 19 Union City, 21 West New York, 23 Palisade, 25 Weehawken, ran along Pershing Road providing local access to the terminal. For a brief period in the 1890s the terminal was also served by a massive elevator structure which transported passengers to a trestle where they could board additional streetcars. The trestle streetcars serviced three well-known entertainment venues — the Eldorado; a

pleasure garden A pleasure garden is a park or garden that is open to the public for recreation and entertainment. Pleasure gardens differ from other public gardens by serving as venues for entertainment, variously featuring such attractions as concert halls, b ...

which overlooked the Eldorado; and Nungesser's Guttenberg Racetrack.

Site

The Weehawken waterfront is located north of

Weehawken Cove Weehawken Cove is a cove on the west bank of the North River (Hudson River), Hudson River between the New Jersey municipalities of Hoboken, New Jersey, Hoboken to the south and Weehawken, New Jersey, Weehawken to the north. At the perimeter of ...

on a long narrow strip of land between the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

and

that, in the last centuries, has been transformed from an

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

flood zone once called Slough's Meadow to an extensive rail and shipping port. The site was redeveloped in the late 20th century into a residential and recreational area. The

United Fruit Company The United Fruit Company (later the United Brands Company) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was ...

once maintained the largest banana warehouse in the USA nearby, which has since been refurbished as commercial space. 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 t ...

is a partially-completed promenade along the bulkhead that was created as part of the redevelopment of the area. In 2009, the site was used by emergency services in the rescuing of passengers for US Airways Flight 1549, which made an emergency landing on the Hudson River.

References

External links

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Old Photo of Terminal

Street Terminal photo1882 description of site
{{NYC terminals Former railway stations in New Jersey Railway stations in the United States opened in 1884 Weehawken, New Jersey Former New York Central Railroad stations Former New York, Ontario and Western Railway stations Railway stations in New Jersey Ferry terminals in New Jersey Weehawken Tunnel Railway stations in Hudson County, New Jersey Hudson River Transit hubs serving New Jersey Demolished railway stations in the United States 1884 establishments in New Jersey 1959 disestablishments in New Jersey Railway stations serving harbours and ports Railway stations in the United States closed in 1959