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 northeastern New Jersey in the United States. The entire watercourse was known as the North River by the Dutch in the earl ...

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 largely on the Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 17,197.

for the

New York Central Railroad 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 Mi ...

West Shore Railroad The West Shore Railroad was the final name of a railroad that ran from Weehawken, New Jersey, on the west bank of the Hudson River opposite New York City, north to Albany, New York, and then west to Buffalo. It was organized as a competitor ...

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 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 is towed by a t ...

facilities, and extensive

yards The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...

. The facility was also used by the

New York, Ontario and Western Railway The New York, Ontario and Western Railway, more commonly known as the O&W or NYO&W, was a regional railroad with origins in 1868, lasting until March 29, 1957 (the last train ran from Norwich to Middletown, NY on this date), after which it was or ...

. 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 contigu ...

during the 19th and 20th centuries; the others were located at

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 ...

, Pavonia, Exchange Place and

Communipaw Communipaw is a neighborhood in Jersey City in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It is located west of Liberty State Park and east of Bergen Hill, and the site of one of the earliest European settlements in North America. It gives its nam ...

, with Hoboken being the only one still in use. Today, the site is the location of

Weehawken Port Imperial Port Imperial is an intermodal transit hub on the Weehawken, New Jersey, waterfront of the Hudson River across from Midtown Manhattan, served by New York Waterway ferries and buses, Hudson–Bergen Light Rail, and NJT buses. The district lies ...

, an inter-modal transit hub used by New Jersey Transit buses, 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 ...

and New York Waterway.

Weehawken Ferry

A patent for a ferry route from Weehawken to

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 ...

was first granted by Governor of New York

Richard Coote Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont (sometimes spelled Bellamont, 1636 – 5 March 1700/01In the Julian calendar, then in use in England, the year began on 25 March. To avoid confusion with dates in the Gregorian calendar, then in us ...

in 1700. It was a sail and row service later superseded by steamboat service, notably at

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 The New Jersey Midland Railway was a 19th-century predecessor to the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYS&W) that operated in Northern New Jersey and Orange County, New York. Formation and construction The New Jersey Midland Railway c ...

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 the New York City neighborhood of Hudson Square in Lower Manhattan to the east with Jersey City in New Jersey to the west. The tunnel is operated by the Port Author ...

, it was a component of the

National Old Trails Road National Old Trails Road, also known as the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, was established in 1912, and became part of the National Auto Trail system in the United States. It was long and stretched from Baltimore, Maryland (some old maps indicate N ...

and 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, 191 ...

, 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 neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

, 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 Cortlandt Street Ferry Depot was the main ferry terminal of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the West Shore Railroad on the North River (Hudson River) in lower Manhattan. The railroads operated ferries to their terminal stations on the Hudson River ...

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 2006, 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 The Battery Park City Ferry Terminal, is a passenger ferry terminal in Battery Park City, Manhattan, serving ferries along the Hudson River in New York City and northeastern New Jersey. It provides slips to ferries, water taxis, and sightseein ...

. 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 Mid ...

bought the

New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway The West Shore Railroad was the final name of a railroad that ran from Weehawken, New Jersey, on the west bank of the Hudson River opposite New York City, north to Albany, New York, and then west to Buffalo. It was organized as a competitor ...

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 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 ...

, 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 New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake ...

Northern Branch The Northern Branch is a railroad line that runs from Jersey City to Northvale in northeastern New Jersey. The line was constructed in 1859 by the Northern Railroad of New Jersey to connect the New York and Erie Railroad's Piermont Branch te ...

and

Pascack Valley Line The Pascack Valley Line is a commuter rail line operated by the Hoboken Division of New Jersey Transit, in the United States. The line runs north from Hoboken Terminal, through Hudson County and Bergen County in New Jersey, and into Rockland Co ...

. At

Haverstraw Haverstraw is a town in Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of the Town of Clarkstown and the Town of Ramapo; east of Orange County; south of the Town of Stony Point; and west of the Hudson River. The town runs from the w ...

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 most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Rockland County Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of t ...

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 Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

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. The Canada–United States border sp ...

. It had branch lines to

Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wyoming V ...

and to Kingston;

Port Jervis Port Jervis is a city located at the confluence of the Neversink and Delaware rivers in western Orange County, New York, United States, north of the Delaware Water Gap. Its population was 8,775 at the 2020 census. The communities of Deerpark, ...

;

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, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

; Utica and

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

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

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.New Jersey Shore Line Railroad The New Jersey Shore Line Railroad was part of the New York Central Railroad and ran along the Hudson River in New Jersey, from the West Shore Railroad (NYCRR) yards at Guttenberg north to the Erie Terminals Railroad at the Hudson/Bergen Co ...

north to Edgewater. The NYO&W last had passenger service to Weehawken on September 10, 1953. Portions of those

rights-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

became part of Conrail's River Line and subsequently the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail.

Other transportation

Between 1892-1949

streetcars A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ar ...

, initially operated by the North Hudson County Railway and later the

Public Service Railway Transport of New Jersey (TNJ), earlier Public Service Transportation and then Public Service Coordinated Transport, was a street railway and bus company in the U.S. state of New Jersey from 1917 to 1980, when NJ Transit took over their operations ...

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 ...

which overlooked the Eldorado; and

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 g ...

Guttenberg Racetrack.

Site

The Weehawken waterfront is located north of

Weehawken Cove Weehawken Cove is a cove on the west bank of the Hudson River between the New Jersey municipalities of Hoboken to the south and Weehawken to the north. At the perimeter of the cove are completed sections the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, o ...

on a long narrow strip of land between 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 Ne ...

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 environm ...

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 (now Chiquita) 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 formed in 1899 fro ...

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 th ...

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 US Airways Flight 1549 was a regularly scheduled US Airways flight from New York City (LaGuardia Airport), to Charlotte and Seattle, in the United States. On January 15, 2009, the Airbus A320 serving the flight struck a flock of birds short ...

, which made an emergency landing on the Hudson River.

References

External links

* *
Old Photo of TerminalStreet Terminal photo1882 description of site
{{NYC terminals Former railway stations in New Jersey Railway stations in the United States opened in 1884 Railway stations closed in 1959 Weehawken, New Jersey Former New York Central Railroad 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