The Jersey City Ferry was a major ferry service that operated between Jersey City in New Jersey and Cortlandt Street in lower Manhattan for almost 200 years (1764-1949). The ferry was notable for being the first to use steam power which began in 1812. The ferry's history was closely tied to the Pennsylvania Railroad's station in Jersey City at Exchange Place, which gradually fell into disuse after the railroad opened the North River Tunnels and Penn Station in 1910. Ferry service from lower Manhattan to Jersey City continued via the even older Communipaw ferry which operated from the adjacent Liberty Street Ferry Terminal until this service was also discontinued in 1967. In 1986 ferry service was revived and today it is operated by New York Waterway. [1]
While the Communipaw ferry dated back to 1661 during the Dutch colonial period in New Amsterdam, [2] the Jersey City ferry, then called the Paulus Hook ferry, began in July 1764 [3] and operated from Paulus Hook to Mesier's dock at the foot of Courtland Street (where Cortland Street Ferry Depot would later be built). [4] Almost immediately and for several decades subsequently, a complicated series of legal battles broke out over who should operate the ferry, where the crossing(s) should be located and at what rate passengers and other cargo should be charged for the journey. [5]
In 1804, the Associates of the Jersey Company was formed to operate the ferries. This company was leased by the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company (and by extension the Pennsylvania Railroad) in 1875, making it the oldest corporation in the PRR proper. [6]
The first steam ferry service in the world began in 1812 between Paulus Hook and Manhattan [7] and reduced the journey time to a then remarkable 14 minutes [8] (today's service is scheduled to take 13 minutes [9] ).
In 1834 a railroad station was built at Paulus Hook and on October 14, 1836 the Morris and Essex Railroad began operating services to Newark and points west from the station. [10] Subsequent expansions of rail service led to an ever increasing demand for the ferry's passenger and cargo service during the 19th century.
Upon completion of the North River Tunnels and Penn Station in 1910, passengers increasingly opted to avoid using Exchange Place Terminal and the ferry's passenger traffic declined. Service to West 32nd Street ended the same year, and service to Desbrosses street ended in 1932. In 1949 the final ferry service was made and passengers wanting to travel from Exchange Place to lower Manhattan were left with only the Downtown Hudson Tubes of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (now PATH) as a form of direct travel.
The Kearny Connection is a railroad junction in Kearny, New Jersey that allows passenger trains from New Jersey Transit's Morris and Essex Lines to enter/leave Amtrak's Northeast Corridor (NEC) and travel to and from New York Penn Station. The junction, which opened in 1996 and utilizes Swift Interlocking, is nearby the Sawtooth Bridges.
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.
Paulus Hook is a community on the Hudson River waterfront in Jersey City, New Jersey. It is located one mile across the river from Manhattan. The name Hook comes from the Dutch word "hoeck", which translates to "point of land." This "point of land" has been described as an elevated area, the location of which today is bounded by Montgomery, Hudson, Dudley, and Van Vorst Streets.
Exchange Place is a district of Downtown Jersey City, New Jersey that is sometimes referred to as Wall Street West due to the concentration of financial companies that have offices there. The namesake is a square, about 200 feet long, at the foot of Montgomery Street at the waterfront of the Hudson River. This square was created by landfilling the shore at Paulus Hook, and has been a major transportation hub since the colonial era.
The Morris and Essex Railroad was a railroad across northern New Jersey, later part of the main line of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Station was the intermodal passenger terminal for the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) vast holdings on the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey. By the 1920s the station was called Exchange Place. The rail terminal and its ferry slips were the main New York City station for the railroad until the opening in 1910 of New York Pennsylvania Station, made possible by the construction of the North River Tunnels. It was one of the busiest stations in the world for much of the 19th century.
The Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, also known as Communipaw Terminal and Jersey City Terminal, was the Central Railroad of New Jersey's waterfront passenger terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey. The terminal was built in 1889, replacing an earlier one that had been in use since 1864. It operated until April 30, 1967.
Phineas Cook Dummer was the sixth mayor of Jersey City in New Jersey. He succeeded Peter Bentley, Sr. A Whig politician, he served four one-year terms from April 1844 to April 20, 1848. He was succeeded by Henry C. Taylor.
Transportation in New York City has ranged from strong Dutch authority in the 17th century, expansionism during the industrial era in the 19th century and half of the 20th century, to cronyism during the Robert Moses era. The shape of New York City's transportation system changed as the city did, and the result is an expansive modern-day system of industrial-era infrastructure. New York City, being the most populous city in the United States, has a transportation system which includes one of the largest subway systems in the world; the world's first mechanically ventilated vehicular tunnel; and an aerial tramway.
Pavonia was the first European settlement on the west bank of the North River that was part of the seventeenth-century province of New Netherland in what would become the present Hudson County, New Jersey.
The West Midtown Ferry Terminal is a passenger bus and ferry terminal serving ferries along the Hudson River in New York City and northeastern New Jersey. It is located at Pier 79 in Hudson River Park adjacent to the West Side Highway at West 39th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The facility first opened in 1986 with the start of NY Waterway commuter ferry service.
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 sightseeing boats in the Port of New York and New Jersey.
The Newkirk House, also known as the Summit House, located at 510 Summit Avenue is the oldest surviving structure in Jersey City, New Jersey. The two-story Dutch Colonial building, composed of sandstone, brick, and clapboard dates to 1690.
The Chambers Street Ferry Terminal was the Erie Railroad's main ferry slip on Manhattan and the point of departure and embarkation for passengers in New York City. The terminal was one of several operated by ferry companies and railroads that lined the western shore of Manhattan during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Pavonia Ferry operated for over 100 years from the terminal, which was demolished about three years after the Erie Railroad stopped its ferry service to Chambers Street in December, 1958.
Liberty Street Ferry Terminal or Liberty Street Terminal was the Central Railroad of New Jersey's passenger ferry slip in lower Manhattan, New York City and the point of departure and embarkation for passengers travelling on the Central Railroad of New Jersey, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Reading Railroad and the Lehigh Valley Railroad from the Communipaw Terminal across the Hudson River in Jersey City.
Cortlandt Street Ferry Depot was the main ferry terminal of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the West Shore Railroad on the North River in lower Manhattan. The railroads operated ferries to their terminal stations on the Hudson River waterfront in New Jersey at Exchange Place and Weehawken, respectively.
The Desbrosses Street Ferry was a ferry route across the Hudson River in the 19th and 20th centuries. It provided passengers with ferry service between the Pennsylvania Railroad's Exchange Place station at Jersey City and Desbrosses Street in lower Manhattan where an elevated railway station at Ninth Avenue was located and where the Metropolitan Crosstown Line provided a connection to the Grand Street Ferry.
The Communipaw Ferry was a major ferry service that operated between the village of Communipaw and Lower Manhattan, New York. The ferry began operations in 1661 after the Colonial Dutch administrators of New Amsterdam granted a charter to operate the ferry. soon after the establishment of Bergen atop Bergen Hill. It was the first reported ferry service established across the Hudson River and it remained active up until 1783 when New York City was captured by the British.
Peter Mesier Sr. was an American merchant and politician who served as alderman of New York City's West ward from 1759 to 1763.