Newburgh-Beacon Ferry

Before the bridge

In the winter, ice was sometimes a problem. In the 1950s, one of the ferries got stuck in the ice. In fact, the NYSBA opened the Kingston bridge ahead of schedule because river ice was keeping the ferry in dock and people couldn't get to work. Similarly, people stalled on the Newburgh-Beacon ferry, en route to work at Nabisco, Texaco or the state prisons, had difficulty getting to work whenever ice trapped their boat and they had to wait for another one to clear a path to shore. If the ice was thick enough and solid enough, they simply walked — by the hundreds — back and forth.