Boulevard East (officially John F. Kennedy Boulevard East, and sometimes referred to as JFK Boulevard East) is a

two-way Two-way or Two Way may refer to: * " 2-Way", single by rapper Lil' Romeo * Two-way, Cincinnati chili topped on spaghetti * "Two Way" (KT Tunstall and James Bay duet), 2016 See also * * * * 3-Way (disambiguation) {{Disambiguation ...

, mostly two lane, scenic county road in the North Hudson,

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 ...

municipalities of

Weehawken Weehawken is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located largely on the Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 17,197.

West New York West New York is a town in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, situated upon the New Jersey Palisades. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 52,912. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates ...

, Guttenberg and

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 ...

. Apart from small sections at either end, the road runs along the crest of the

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 ...

, affording it views of 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 ...

and the

New York City skyline New York City, the most populous city in the United States, is home to over 7,000 completed high-rise buildings of at least , of which at least 95 are taller than . The tallest building in New York is One World Trade Center, which rises ...

. Developed at the turn of the 20th century, the residential road is characterized by an eclectic mix of 20th-century architecture, including private homes as well as mid and high-rise apartment buildings, mostly on its western side, with a

promenade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cl ...

and parks along its eastern side. It is also the setting for

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realist painter and printmaker. While he is widely known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. Hopper created subdued drama ...

's 1934 painting ''East Wind Over Weehawken'', which is considered one of his best works.

History

Boulevard East runs along the crest of the

. It is so named in reference to the other major boulevard in

Hudson County Hudson County is the most densely populated county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It lies west of the lower Hudson River, which was named for Henry Hudson, the sea captain who explored the area in 1609. Part of New Jersey's Gateway Region in ...

to which it is connected, Kennedy Boulevard. Prior to being renamed in honor of

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

in the 1960s, the street was known as Hudson Boulevard. While there was discussion of building a county long road as early as the 1870s, parts of Hudson County Boulevard were officially opened in 1896. By 1913 it was completed, and considered to be fine for "motoring". Taken as a single road, the circuitous route of west and east sections of the entire boulevard runs from the southern tip of the county at

Bergen Point Bergen Point is a point of land that lends its name to the adjacent neighborhood in Bayonne in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The point is located on the north side of Kill van Kull at Newark Bay. It is the section of the city clos ...

to its northern border with Bergen County and south again to the

Hoboken Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,69 ...

city line. In local nomenclature, signage, addresses, transportation, and postal delivery, the name Boulevard East is used.

Route description

Much of Boulevard East runs parallel to the edge of a sheer escarpment and offers expansive views the iconographic

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

skyline. Since 2009, when

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

began to launch its annual

Fourth of July Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...

fireworks from the

, portions of The Boulevard are closed to allow spectators to view the display. The Boulevard was proposed to be part of the Port Imperial Street Circuit of the Grand Prix of America. The southern end of the road is an important component of local access to the

Lincoln Tunnel The Lincoln Tunnel is an approximately tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey, to the west with Midtown Manhattan in New York City to the east. It carries New Jersey Route 495 on the New Jersey side and unsigned Ne ...

, running past its

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

toll plaza A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemente ...

and passing twice under the

helix A helix () is a shape like a corkscrew or spiral staircase. It is a type of smooth space curve with tangent lines at a constant angle to a fixed axis. Helices are important in biology, as the DNA molecule is formed as two intertwined helic ...

which descends to meet it. Entering a residential district of

the boulevard steeply ascends northward until reaching the ''Boulevard Curve'' where it curves east, then north again and begins travelling along the edge of the

. Just to the south of the curve is the Hamilton Memorial, relocated from the Burr-Hamilton duel site at the foot of the cliffs below Kings Bluff, named for James Gore King whose 19th century estate, Highwood, once stood there, and is now a residential neighborhood. The road then passes Hamilton Plaza where for a brief time in the 1890s stood El Dorado, 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 ...

offering theatrical spectacles, casinos, and exotic gardens. At Liberty Place it crosses over a now defunct

cut Cut may refer to: Common uses * The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely-directed force ** A type of wound ** Cut (archaeology), a hole dug in the past ** Cut (clothing), the style or shape of a garment ** Cut (ea ...

through which once ran streetcars operated by

North Hudson County Railway The North Hudson Railway Company built and operated a streetcar system in Hudson County and southeast Bergen County, New Jersey before and after the start of the 20th century. It was founded by Hillric J. Bonn who became the first President in 1 ...

that connected to a massive elevator and ferries at

Weehawken Terminal Weehawken Terminal was the waterfront intermodal terminal on the North River (Hudson River) in Weehawken, New Jersey for the New York Central Railroad's West Shore Railroad division, whose route traveled along the west shore of the Hudson River ...

. Pershing Road is one of the few roads which connect the waterfront to the Boulevard and the top of the cliffs, and was once part of the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway 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 October 31, 1913 ...

. At the southwest corner of 49th Street stands the gabled house depicted in ''

East Wind Over Weehawken ''East Wind Over Weehawken'' is an oil painting on canvas by American realist painter Edward Hopper. It was held in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in the United States from 1952 until its sale to an anonymous buyer in ...

'', a 1934 painting by

, which is considered one of his best works. Old Glory Park is near the town line of

where of the much boulevard is abutted by parks and scenic overlooks. A statue of Thomas M. Donnelly, instrumental in the preservation of the Palisades, is located in the park named for him. The

trap rock Trap rock, also known as either trapp or trap, is any dark-colored, fine-grained, non-granitic intrusive or extrusive igneous rock. Types of trap rock include basalt, peridotite, diabase, and gabbro.Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A. ...

walls that line much of the overlook come from

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

operations that he and the NJ Federation of Women's Clubs were able curtail at the beginning of the 20th century. 60th Street, the main crosstown street for the town became Hillside Road (officially renamed for Anthony DeFino, who was mayor for 24 years) connecting the boulevard to River Road. One of the few residential neighborhoods on the cliff side of the boulevard is found north of the major crossroad at one of its more severe curves. It is here that the road reaches a height of nearly 260 feet near the highest point in

. The park on 60th Street features a fountain erected in tribute to the victims of the

September 11 Attacks 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 ...

. The three block section of the boulevard in Guttenberg is dominated by the Galaxy Towers, a Brutalist trio of octagonal buildings, which rise from the foot of the palisades and soar above them. Ferry Road passes underneath the complex. The Woodcliff Section of

, once known as Hudson Heights, is characterized by a combination of family homes and modernist high-rises, notably the cylindrical Stonehenge. Near the point where the road bears west and enters North Hudson Park the original Bulls Ferry Road makes a steep descent to the east. It is in the park, also named for famous son

James J. Braddock James Walter Braddock (June 7, 1905 – November 29, 1974) was an American boxer who was the world heavyweight champion from 1935 to 1937. Fighting under the name James J. Braddock (ostensibly to follow the pattern set by two prior world boxing ...

, that Boulevard East intersects with Palisades Avenue, which continues north along the cliffs, and soon after ends at Bergenline in Nungessers. There are numerous bridges along Boulevard East crossing over clefts in the cliffs, many approaching 100 years in age. A portion of the road was closed for six months in 2013 to replace one located in North Bergen.

Transportation

Boulevard East carries three county route designations. County Route 677 begins as Park Avenue in Hoboken, becoming Boulevard East after crossing the viaduct over the

Hudson Bergen Light Rail Hudson may refer to: People * Hudson (given name) * Hudson (surname) * Henry Hudson, English explorer * Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back * Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudson R ...

tracks. At Highwood Terrace in Weehawken it becomes part of County Route 505. From 60th Street in

it is designated County Route 693 until joining its western counterpart, designated County Route 501. In total the route is slightly more than three miles long. Addresses ascend from the first at number 300. In Weehawken the numbers rise to 1055. At the border with West New York at 51st Street, the addresses jump to 5101, following the custom of taking the building number from the lower cross street. This system was jointly adopted by the North Hudson towns after streets were re-numbered after the opening of the

in 1937.

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

bus routes 128, 165, 166, 168 travel along the boulevard between the

Port Authority Bus Terminal The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving about 8,000 buse ...

and locations in Bergen County. NJT 23"North Bergen-Weehawken-Port Imperial-Hoboken"

. August 31, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2014. provides local service.

Dollar van A dollar van (also known as a jitney) is a privately-owned type of bus service used to carry passengers in the United States. Dollar vans are typically modified passenger vans, and often operate in urban neighborhoods that are under-served by pu ...

s, many of which originate at

Nungesser's Nungessers is the name of the confluence of roads that meet at the Hudson and Bergen county line at North Bergen and Fairview in northeastern New Jersey. The area is the former site of the Nungesser's Gutenberg Racetrack, a late 19th-century gam ...

, also travel along the street to 42nd Street in

. Pershing Road and public stairs connect the road to Weehawken Port Imperial, where

ferries 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 tax ...

and light rail are available.

Major intersections

Gallery

File:10.2.09BoulevardEastByLuigiNovi1.jpg, The thoroughfare is lined with many parks and scenic outlooks. File:ThomasMDonnellyMonument.JPG, Bust of Thomas M. Donnelly, whose contributions helped save the Palisades File:10.7.09BoulevardEast&60thSTByLuigiNovi1.jpg, In

at 60th Street, one of the few streets which connects it to the

waterfront File:10.2.09WoodcliffByLuigiNovi2.jpg, Apartment buildings and promenade in

File:East Wind Over Weehawken, Edward Hopper 1934.tiff, ''

'' by

References

External links

* {{cite web, url=https://www.visithudson.org/itineraries/best-of-boulevard-east/, title=Best of Boulevard East, publisher=Hudson County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs/Tourism Development, language=en-US, url-status=live, date=June 25, 2021, archivedate=February 21, 2022, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221152330/https://betterwaterfront.org/parking-vs-bike-lanes-the-battle-over-jfk-blvd-east/ Streets in Hudson County, New Jersey Weehawken, New Jersey Tourist attractions in Hudson County, New Jersey Hudson River North Hudson, New Jersey Monuments and memorials to John F. Kennedy in the United States