Bergen Point Plank Road

Last updated
Bergen Point Plank Road
JerseyCity,Bergen,City,Greenville1860.tiff
Route information
Existed1850–present
Major junctions
South end Bergen Point, Bayonne, NJ
North end Paulus Hook, Jersey City, NJ
Highway system
Plank roads

The Jersey City and Bergen Point Plank Road was a road originally built in the 19th century in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States which ran between Paulus Hook and Bergen Point. The company that built the road received a charter on March 6, 1850 [1] [2] [3] to improve one that had been built in the 18th century. [4] [5] It has subsequently become Grand Street and Garfield Avenue in Jersey City and Broadway in Bayonne. [6] Plank roads were built during the 19th century, often by private companies as turnpike roads, in this case with a tollgate at Communipaw Junction. [7] As the name suggests, wooden boards were laid on a roadbed in order to prevent horse-drawn carriages and wagons from sinking into softer ground on the portions of the road.

The road traveled from the waterfront of North River (Hudson River) at Paulus Hook to Communipaw Junction, where a toll was collected. It then ran parallel to the Morris Canal through Greenville to Curries Woods., [8] passing through Bayview – New York Bay Cemetery. Crossing the canal at Pamrapo, it proceeded south into Saltersville and Centerville ending at Bergen Point. Transfer to ferries to Elizabethport across Newark Bay and to Staten Island across Kill van Kull were possible.

See also

Related Research Articles

Timeline of Jersey City, New Jersey-area railroads

For the purposes of this article, the Jersey City area extends North to Edgewater, South to Bayonne and includes Kearny Junction and Harrison but not Newark. Many routes east of Newark are listed here.

Bergen Township was a township that existed in the U.S. state of New Jersey, from 1661 to 1862, first as Bergen, New Netherland, then as part Bergen County, and later as part of Hudson County. Several places still bear the name: the township of North Bergen; Bergen Square, Old Bergen Road, Bergen Avenue, Bergen Junction, Bergen Hill and Bergen Arches in Jersey City; Bergen Point in Bayonne; and Bergenline Avenue and Bergen Turnpike in North Hudson.

Greenville, Jersey City Unincorporated community in New Jersey, United States

Greenville is the southernmost section of Jersey City in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.

Paterson Plank Road is a road that runs through Passaic, Bergen and Hudson Counties in northeastern New Jersey. The route, originally laid in the colonial era, connects the city of Paterson and the Hudson River waterfront. It has largely been superseded by Route 3, but in the many towns it passes it has remained an important local thoroughfare, and in some cases been renamed.

Five Corners, Jersey City

Five Corners is a neighborhood located at the intersection of Summit Avenue, Newark Avenue, and Hoboken Avenue in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, and is situated in the northeastern portion of the larger Journal Square district. The name of the intersection is used for the neighborhood radiating from the crossing, which is adjacent to the Hilltop, just south of Bergen Arches and The Divided Highway.

Bergen Point Unincorporated community in New Jersey, United States

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 closest to the Bayonne Bridge. Historically the term has been used more broadly as synonymous with Constable Hook, from which it is geographically separated at Port Johnson.

The Newark Plank Road was a major artery between Hudson Waterfront at Paulus Hook and city of Newark further inland across the New Jersey Meadows. As its name suggests, a plank road was constructed of wooden planks laid side-to-side on a roadbed. Similar roads, the Bergen Point Plank Road, the Hackensack Plank Road and Paterson Plank Road, travelled to the locales for which they are named. The name is no longer used, the route having been absorbed into other streets and freeways.

Hackensack Plank Road

The Hackensack Plank Road, also known as Bergen Turnpike, was a major artery which connected the cities of Hoboken and Hackensack, New Jersey. Like its cousin routes, the Newark Plank Road and Paterson Plank Road, it travelled over Bergen Hill and across the Hackensack Meadows from the Hudson River waterfront to the city for which it was named. It was originally built as a colonial turnpike road as Hackensack and Hoboken Turnpike. The route mostly still exists today, though some segments are now called the Bergen Turnpike. It was during the 19th century that plank roads were developed, often by private companies which charged a toll. As the name suggests, wooden boards were laid on a roadbed in order to prevent horse-drawn carriages and wagons from sinking into softer ground on the portions of the road that passed through wetlands. The company that built the road received its charter on November 30, 1802. The road followed the route road from Hackensack to Communipaw that was described in 1679 as a "fine broad wagon-road."

Bergen Hill Lower part of the Hudson Palisades, New Jersey, United States

Bergen Hill refers to the lower Hudson Palisades in New Jersey, United States, 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.

Communipaw Unincorporated community in New Jersey, United States

Communipaw is an unincorporated community and neighborhood located within 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 name to the historic avenue which runs from its eastern end near Liberty State Park Station through the neighborhoods of Bergen-Lafayette and the West Side that then becomes the Lincoln Highway. Communipaw Junction, or simply, The Junction, is an intersection where Communipaw, Summit Avenue, Garfield Avenue, and Grand Street meet, and where the toll house for the Bergen Point Plank Road was situated. Communipaw Cove at Upper New York Bay, is part of the 36-acre (150,000 m2) state nature preserve in the park and one of the few remaining tidal salt marshes in the Hudson River estuary.

Curries Woods is a neighborhood in the southern part of Greenville in Jersey City, New Jersey bordering Bayonne. It was named after James Curie, who was on the town Committee for Greenville when it was its own Township in the 19th century. The area remained rural until the later part of the century when the Central Railroad of New Jersey built a line connecting ferries to Elizabeth, New Jersey and New York City. Currie's Woods still remained untouched through the late part of the century and it was valued for its woods, rocky shore and dunes on Newark Bay. A lot of the land was eventually lost, but a tract was set aside in the early part of the 20th century. A small cemetery, the Old Greenville Cemetery, was nearby. This park lost much of its land to the city's largest Housing Authority project in 1959, except a small tract in Bayonne, Mercer Park.

Bergen-Lafayette is a section of Jersey City, New Jersey.

Hudson Waterfront Place in Hudson and Bergen

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 contiguous urban area between the Bayonne Bridge and the George Washington Bridge that is approximately 19 miles (31 km) long. Historically, the region has been known as Bergen Neck, the lower peninsula, and Bergen Hill, lower Hudson Palisades. It has sometimes been called the Gold Coast.

Summit Avenue (Hudson Palisades)

County Route 617 is 4.55 miles (7.32 km) long and follows one street, Summit Avenue along the ridge of the Hudson Palisades in Hudson County, New Jersey. Its southern end is CR 622, or Grand Street, at Communipaw Junction in the Bergen-Lafayette Section of Jersey City. Its northern end is CR 691, 32nd Street, a section of the Bergen Turnpike, in Union City.

The West End is the former name of the only neighborhood in Historic Downtown Jersey City, New Jersey that is entirely west of the New Jersey Turnpike's Newark Bay Extension.

Bergen Hill, Jersey City

Bergen Hill the name given to the emergence of the Hudson Palisades along the Bergen Neck peninsula in Hudson County, New Jersey and the inland neighborhood of Jersey City where they rise from the coastal plain at the Upper New York Bay. The name is taken from the original 17th-century New Netherland settlement of Bergen, which in Dutch means hills.

Newark and New York Railroad

The Newark and New York Railroad was a passenger rail line that ran between Downtown Newark and the Communipaw Terminal at the mouth of the North River in Jersey City, bridging the Hackensack River and Passaic River just north of their mouths at the Newark Bay in northeastern New Jersey. The Central Railroad of New Jersey operated it from its opening in 1869. Though operations ended in 1946; portions remained in use until 1967.

National Docks Secondary

National Docks Secondary is a freight rail line within Conrail's North Jersey Shared Assets Area in Hudson County, New Jersey, used by CSX Transportation. It provides access for the national rail network to maritime, industrial, and distribution facilities at Port Jersey, the Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne (MOTBY), and Constable Hook as well as carfloat operations at Greenville Yard. The line is an important component in the planned expansion of facilities in the Port of New York and New Jersey. The single track right of way comprises rail beds, viaducts, bridges, and tunnels originally developed at the end of the 19th century by competing railroads.

Lincoln Highway Hackensack River Bridge

The Lincoln Highway Hackensack River Bridge is a vehicular vertical lift bridge crossing the Hackensack River at a point 1.8 mi (2.9 km) from the river mouth at Newark Bay in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The bridge, along the route of the Lincoln Highway, carries U.S. Route 1/9 Truck and the East Coast Greenway between the West Side of Jersey City and Kearny Point in Kearny. The most recent of many crossings at the location, the current bridge was completed in 1954. It is owned by and operated by the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), and is required by the Title 33 of the Code of Federal Regulations to open on signal for maritime traffic. In 2007 it was designated the Shawn Carson and Robert Nguyen Memorial Bridge.

References

  1. Unofficial New Jersey Route Log
  2. Thomas F. Gordon, A Gazetteer of the State of New Jersey, 1834, pp. 17-18 Laws of the State of New Jersey, 1811, pp. 337-340
  3. Timeline for the Founding and History of the City of Bayonne Archived 2011-09-17 at the Wayback Machine , Bayonne Historical Society. Retrieved August 21, 2009.
  4. "Petitions and Other Papers relating to Bridges, Canals, Dams, Ferries and Roads, 1765- 1835" (PDF). New Jersey State Archives Collection Guide. New Jersey Department of State. Retrieved 2012-11-11.
  5. "GET NJ — Jersey City and Its Historic Sites — Paulus Hook Ferry".
  6. Hudson County New Jersey Street Map. Hagstrom Map Company, Inc. 2008. ISBN   978-0-88097-763-0.
  7. "The Storm at Jersey City, Newark, and Paterson". The New York Times. August 8, 1853. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
  8. Greenville [ permanent dead link ]

Coordinates: 40°43′02″N74°03′42″W / 40.717119°N 74.061574°W / 40.717119; -74.061574