Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey City

By Kenneth French

With over two hundred historical photographs, Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey City explores the cultural and commercial effects of railway travel in two important New Jersey cities. Because of their unique location directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, Hoboken and Jersey City have long been centers of transportation activity. When the railway industry was booming in the early twentieth century, four major passenger terminals dotted the left bank of the Hudson from the Jersey Central to the Pennsylvania to the Erie to the Lackawanna. Thousands of people streamed through these terminals every day to the ferries that then took them across the river to New York City. Additionally, tons of freight were brought through the vast train yards along the waterfront. Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey City tells the history of the railroads between the mid-1800s and the 1970s. It also explores how the once vibrant waterfronts of Hoboken and Jersey City went through tremendous decline and how, over time, the waterfront has been restored and redeveloped. New residential and commercial buildings have sprouted along the old Pennsylvania and Erie properties, the Lackawanna Terminal has been restored, and the Central Railroad Terminal is now part of Liberty State Park, one of New Jersey's most popular tourist destinations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Feb 19, 2002
• ISBN: 9781439628300

Kenneth French

A native of Jersey City, Kenneth French is also the author of Jersey City, 1940-1960: The Dan McNulty Collection. He is the librarian at St. Peter's Preparatory School and the former head librarian at the New Jersey Room of the Jersey City Public Library. A longtime supporter of the preservation of local historic sites, such as the Loew's Jersey Theater, the Apple Tree House, and the Bergen Arches, Kenneth French is pleased to present this look at the railroads in Jersey City and Hoboken.

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INTRODUCTION

It was all because of the geography. When the early railroad companies began forming in New Jersey in the 1830s, one of the earliest issues addressed was how to get the trains to the Hudson River. Passengers needed to get to New York City. The easiest way to do this was to get them to the Hudson and then ferry them across. First, however, they had to get there. Getting from many parts of New Jersey to Jersey City or Hoboken meant crossing the Hackensack meadows. Early train lines ended before the meadows and then put passengers on stagecoaches for the rest of the journey. Eventually, landfills and bridges allowed passage over the wetlands, and the links were complete.

Along the waterfront, the railroads had a tremendous amount of property. The Central Railroad of New Jersey extended its property farther into the harbor by using landfill made up of New York City trash (keep that in mind the next time you are strolling in Liberty State Park). For many of the years of the railroads’ dominion, they paid very little in tax revenue to Jersey City or Hoboken, considering how many acres they owned. It was not until the 1930s that Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague forced a renegotiation; by that time, the railroads were already facing the beginning of the end.

For Jersey City and Hoboken, the railroads mostly meant jobs for locals. Few residents took the trains, since they mainly served commuters from other parts of the state. While I was working on this book, practically everyone I mentioned it to had a relative who had worked for one of the lines, either in the yards, the terminals, the ferries, or on the trains themselves.

One by one, however, the railroads folded. There was a brief resuscitation during World War II, but that only delayed the inevitable. Postwar prosperity was the final straw. With everyone buying cars, fewer wanted to take the trains to work. This led to the closing of the railroads and eventually contributed to today’s traffic congestion. Drive through pretty much any part of New Jersey and you can see abandoned train lines. The current New Jersey Transit trains make up only a small part of the lines that once serviced the state. Slowly, new lines are being introduced, including the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system in Jersey City and (soon) Hoboken.

There are a few comments to be made about the book itself. Although it is ostensibly a book about the railroads, its interest lies outside the specific railroad fan audience. The book is about Jersey City and Hoboken, as seen from the perspective of the railroads and what they meant to the two cities. The pictures here illustrate not only the importance of the railroads to Hoboken and Jersey City but also the importance of Hoboken and Jersey City to New York City. The west bank of the Hudson has always been given the short end of the stick, but for over a century, New Jersey has been providing New York with a big chunk of its work force. Many of those have come from or through Jersey City and Hoboken. Because of this, there are many pictures within the book where the railroads share the stage with their neighborhoods, cities, and the New York skyline beyond. When there was a choice to be made to include a close-up of an engine or a great shot of the area, the latter won nearly every time. While I hope that railroad buffs will find something in the book to enjoy, I have chosen to feature the area in general.

As with my first book (Jersey City, 1940–1960: The Dan McNulty Collection), seeing the area from the perspective of the railroads allowed me to see Jersey City and Hoboken in a different way. Like the McNulty photographs, the images of the railroads here were taken before my time. Unlike the McNulty photographs, the areas the railroads inhabited have changed tremendously. I grew up at a time when the railroads were forgotten. As a teenager, I had no idea why there was a vast open parking lot by the Pavonia Avenue PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) station, or why there was a letter E on the columns at that station. There was no other trace of the Erie Railroad. Similarly, the old Exchange Place PATH station stood alone, with no indication of the Pennsylvania terminal, ferry building, or office tower that once surrounded