New Barbadoes Neck is the name given in the colonial era for the peninsula in northeastern New Jersey, US between the lower Hackensack and Passaic Rivers, in what is now western Hudson County and southern Bergen County. The neck begins in the south at Kearny Point in the Newark Bay and is characterized by a ridge (creating the valley of the Passaic) along the west and part of the New Jersey Meadowlands (the flood plain of the Hackensack) on the east.
The neck was part of an area called Meghgectecock by the Lenape. It was the territory of the group called the Hackensack. [1] [2] The name of masgichteu-cunk meaning where May-apples grow, from a moist-woodland perennial that bears edible yellow berries. The name Achter Col was given during the New Netherland era in the mid-17th century, and can be translated a rear mountain pass or behind the ridge, in reference to the access it provided to the hinterlands beyond the Hudson Palisades that were rich fur-trapping grounds.
After the surrender of Fort Amsterdam by the Dutch in 1664, the area became part of the proprietary Province of New Jersey during the period of British colonization of North America. On July 4, 1668, William Sandford obtained a grant of 15,308 acres (62 km²) from the proprietors. In the grant document, the name of the area was recorded as "New Barbados." As was the custom of the times, Sandford paid Chief Tantaqua of the Hackensack Indians 20 English Pounds Sterling for all their reserve rights and titles. On June 10, 1669, John Berry obtained a grant of 10,000 acres (40 km²) to the north of Sandford's grant. [3] In 1671, Sandford's grant was divided between him and his uncle Nathaniel Kingsland of Barbados, with Sandford owning the southern third of the tract and Kingsland the northern two-thirds. [4] The Kingsland tract was settled by Nathaniel's nephew Isaac Kingsland about 1683. From 1668 to 1687, New Barbadoes was part of Newark Township.
The Sandford family is recalled locally in Sandford Avenue in Harrison and Kearny. The Kingsland family is recalled in the Kingsland Station, Kingsland Avenue in Lyndhurst, and Kingsland Manor. Berry is recalled in the names of Berrys Creek, and the historic Yereance-Berry House. A portion was later sold to an early settler to Pavonia, New Netherland, Walling Van Winkle.
The township was created in 1710 and encompassed all of the neck as well as lands to the north and west to the Saddle River. At this time, the territory was transferred from Essex County and made part of an expanded Bergen County. [5]
In 1710, Kingsland sold a tract for 300 English Pounds Sterling to Captain Arent Schuyler – a former trader and Indian agent and, a member of the influential Schuyler family. The new purchase included present-day Kearny, North Arlington and Lyndhurst. Following his death in 1730, his sons inherited the land. After Schuyler's purchase of his new homestead, it was discovered the ground contained copper, which led to the opening of the Schuyler Copper Mine. After it became flooded, the first steam engine in America was developed and used to pump out the deep mine shaft. [6] The engine was secretly built by the engineer Josiah Hornblower. The engine and mines were destroyed by fire in 1768 and remained idle for some years. [7] Schuyler Avenue, which runs along the eastern edge of the ridge honors the early settlement.
Lord Howe of England took possession of New York Harbor and the proximity of Schuyler Mansion drew many of his officers who traveled over a road known today as the Belleville Turnpike. It had originally been laid in 1759 with cedar logs from the nearby swamps. In September 1777, Henry Clinton, head of the British Expeditionary Forces in America, selected Schuyler Mansion for his headquarters during one of his more important raiding operations, including those along Second River. [8]
In the 1800s, the Neck came under the jurisdiction of different townships and in 1840 part of the newly created Hudson County.
A large portion of the peninsula has, since 1968, been part of the New Jersey Meadowlands District.
Route 7 is a state highway in the northern part of New Jersey in the United States. It has two sections, an east–west alignment running from U.S. Route 1/9 Truck in Jersey City to Route 21 in Belleville, and a north–south alignment running from the Newark/Belleville to the Nutley/Clifton border. The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) lists Route 7 as a single north–south highway with a small gap between the alignments. The entire highway has a combined length of 9.46 mi (15.22 km).
Lyndhurst is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 20,554, reflecting an increase of 1,171 (+6.0%) from the 19,383 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 1,121 (+6.1%) from the 18,262 counted in the 1990 Census.
The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the suburban area outside New York City just west of the lower Hudson River, which it roughly parallels, separated from it by the New Jersey Palisades. It also flows through and drains the New Jersey Meadowlands. The lower river, which is navigable as far as the city of Hackensack, is heavily industrialized and forms a commercial extension of Newark Bay. Once believed to be among the most polluted watercourses in the United States, it staged a modest revival by the late 2000s. The river is divided into the upper river, north of the Oradell Reservoir and Oradell Dam, and lower river, south of the reservoir and dam.
New Barbadoes Township was a township that was formed in 1710 and existed in its largest extent in pre-American Revolutionary War times in Bergen County, New Jersey. The Township was created from territories that had been part of Essex County that were removed by royal decree and added to Bergen County. After many departures, secessions and deannexations over the centuries, New Barbadoes Township exists today as Hackensack, which adopted its present name in 1921.
The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission was a regional zoning, planning and regulatory agency in northern New Jersey. Its founding mandates were to protect the delicate balance of nature, provide for orderly development, and manage solid waste activities in the New Jersey Meadowlands District. The Commission operated as an independent state agency between 1969 and 2015, loosely affiliated with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. NJMC was merged with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority through legislative action.
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.
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.
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, traveled to the locales for which they are named. The name is no longer used, the route having been absorbed into other streets and freeways.
Kingsland is a railroad station on New Jersey Transit's Main Line. It is located under Ridge Road (Route 17) between New York and Valley Brook Avenues in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, and is one of two stations in Lyndhurst. The station is not staffed, and passengers use ticket vending machines (TVMs) located at street level to purchase tickets. The station is not handicapped-accessible. Originally part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's Boonton Branch, the current Kingsland station was built in 1918.
South Kearny, also known as Kearny Point, is an industrial district and distinct area of the western part of Hudson County, New Jersey at the northern end of Newark Bay in the town of Kearny, New Jersey. It is on the larger peninsula once called New Barbadoes Neck, which also include the other Kearny districts of the Uplands and the Kearny Meadows. It has been known as Kearny Point and, along Droyer's Point in Jersey City, marks the mouth of the Hackensack River to the east. The Passaic River flows along its western border opposite a similarly industrial portion of the Ironbound district of Newark. Most of the point is part of Foreign-Trade Zone 49
Achter Kol was the name given to the region around the Newark Bay and Hackensack River in northeastern New Jersey by the first European settlers to it and was part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, originally administered by the Dutch West India Company. At the time of their arrival, the area was inhabited by the Hackensack and Raritan groups of Lenape.
Bergen was a part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, in the area in northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers that would become contemporary Hudson and Bergen Counties. Though it only officially existed as an independent municipality from 1661, with the founding of a village at Bergen Square, Bergen began as a factory at Communipaw circa 1615 and was first settled in 1630 as Pavonia. These early settlements were along the banks of the North River across from New Amsterdam, under whose jurisdiction they fell.
Bergen Neck is the peninsula between the Upper New York Bay and the Newark Bay in the Hudson County, New Jersey municipalities of Bayonne and Jersey City. Its southernmost tip, Bergen Point, is separated from Staten Island by the Kill van Kull, which is crossed by the Bayonne Bridge.
West Hudson is the western part of Hudson County, New Jersey comprising the contiguous municipalities of Kearny, Harrison and East Newark, which lies on the peninsula between the Hackensack River and Passaic River.
Arent Philipse Schuyler was a member of the influential Schuyler family. He was a surveyor, Native American trader, miner, merchant, and land speculator.
The Belleville Turnpike Bridge is a vehicular moveable bridge spanning the Passaic River in northeastern New Jersey 8.9 miles (14.3 km) from its river mouth at Newark Bay. Also known as Rutgers Street Bridge and Route 7 Bridge, it is the fourth fixed crossing to be built at the location, today the tripoint of the municipal and county lines of Belleville in Essex, Kearny in Hudson, and North Arlington in Bergen. Commissioned by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, which owns and operates it, the vertical lift bridge opened in 2002.
John Berry was an English colonist who migrated from Barbados to become an early major landowner, militia officer and Deputy Governor under the Lords Proprietor of the Proprietary Colony of New Jersey.
Kingsland is an unincorporated community located within Lyndhurst Township in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. and the site of Kingsland station.
William Sandford (1637-1691) was a colonist, planter, government official and militiaman. Born in an English enclave in The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, he also lived in Surinam, Barbados and East Jersey. In partnership with his uncle, Nathaniel Kingsland of Barbados, he obtained the initial land grant for New Barbadoes, New Jersey and he and his family were the first European settlers there. He held various civil offices and was involved in several militia engagements.