Old Erie Path

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Old Erie Path
Old Erie Path in Piermont.jpg
Old Erie Path in Piermont, New York.
Length3.4 mi (5.5 km)
Location Rockland County, New York
Trailheads Raymond G. Esposito Trail in South Nyack
41°04′24″N73°55′21″W / 41.073410°N 73.922559°W / 41.073410; -73.922559 (Old Erie Path (northern trailhead))
Joseph B. Clarke Rail Trail in Sparkill
41°01′53″N73°55′39″W / 41.031270°N 73.927561°W / 41.031270; -73.927561 (Old Erie Path (southern trailhead))
UseHiking & Mountain Biking

The Old Erie Path is a 3.4 mile north-south rail trail in the town of Orangetown, Rockland County, New York. It begins at the southern edge of South Nyack at the end of the Raymond G. Esposito Trail, spanning Grand View-on-Hudson and Piermont before terminating at the junction of the Joseph B. Clarke Rail Trail in Sparkill. [1] The trail is a dirt path, suitable for hiking and mountain biking.

The trail follows the former Northern Branch, which was originally constructed in 1859 by the Northern Railroad of New Jersey from Nyack to Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City. In 1942, the Northern Railroad of New Jersey was sold to the Erie Railroad, where it was known as the Northern Branch until passenger service ceased in 1966. [2]

Piermont Station Piermont Train Station on the Old Erie Path.jpg
Piermont Station

The trail passes by Piermont station, which is maintained by the Piermont Historical Society and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as of 2008. [3] The ruins of the platform of the Grand View station are visible from the trail, but the stationhouse collapsed during a storm in 1970. [4] The trail's end is the site of the Sparkill station, but there are no remnants of the station. [5]

Remains of the Grand View Station Grand View Station Ruins.jpg
Remains of the Grand View Station

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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.

The Northern Branch is a railroad line that runs from Jersey City to Northvale in northeastern New Jersey. The line was constructed in 1859 by the Northern Railroad of New Jersey to connect the New York and Erie Rail Road's Piermont Branch terminus in Piermont, New York, to Erie's Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City. The line was then extended to Nyack, New York in 1870 and provided passenger service until 1966. Ownership of the line passed into the hands of Conrail upon the its formation in 1976.

West Shore Railroad

The West Shore Railroad was the final name of a railroad that ran from Weehawken, New Jersey, which is across the Hudson River from New York City, north along the west shore of the river to Albany, New York, and then west to Buffalo. It was organized as a competitor to the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, but was soon taken over by that company.

Pavonia Terminal

Pavonia Terminal was the Erie Railroad terminal on the Hudson River situated on the landfilled Harsimus Cove in Jersey City, New Jersey. The station opened in 1861 and closed in 1958 when the Erie Railroad moved its passenger services to nearby Hoboken Terminal. The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway also ran commuter trains from the terminal and various street cars, ferries and the underground Hudson and Manhattan Railroad serviced the station. The station was abandoned in 1958 and demolished in 1961.

Sparkill, New York Census-designated place in New York, United States

Sparkill, formerly known as Tappan Sloat, is a suburban hamlet and census-designated place in the Town of Orangetown, Rockland County, New York, United States located north of Palisades; east of Tappan; south of Piermont and west of the Hudson River. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a population of 1,565. The hamlet is home to St. Thomas Aquinas College and the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill.

Suffern station

Suffern station is a commuter rail stop in Suffern, New York, United States. It is operated by New Jersey Transit, whose Main Line serves this station, and also used by the Metro-North Railroad's Port Jervis Line.

Mountain View station

Mountain View, signed on the platform as Mountain View–Wayne, is a station on the Montclair-Boonton Line of NJ Transit in Wayne, New Jersey. Prior to the Montclair Connection in 2002, the station was served by the Boonton Line. The station is located on Erie Avenue, just off of US 202 and Route 23 in Downtown Wayne. Since January 2008, Mountain View station is the second of two stations in Wayne, the other being the Wayne Route 23 Transit Center, a station off the Westbelt interchange.

Weehawken Terminal

Weehawken Terminal was the waterfront intermodal terminal on the North River in Weehawken, New Jersey for the New York Central Railroad's West Shore Railroad division, whose route travelled along the west shore of the Hudson River. It opened in 1884 and closed in 1959. The complex contained five ferry slips, sixteen passenger train tracks, car float facilities, and extensive yards. The facility was also used by the New York, Ontario and Western Railway. The terminal was one of five passenger railroad terminals that lined the Hudson Waterfront during the 19th and 20th centuries, the others were located at Hoboken, Pavonia, Exchange Place and Communipaw, with Hoboken being the only one still in use.

Piermont station

Piermont Railroad Station is a historic train station located at Piermont in Rockland County, New York. It was built about 1873 by the Northern Railroad of New Jersey, later acquired by the Erie Railroad. It is a ​1 12-story, light frame building above a stone foundation. It features Stick Style exterior siding and a Late Victorian interior.

Sparkill Creek

Sparkill Creek, is a tributary of the Hudson River in Rockland County, New York and Bergen County, New Jersey in the United States. It flows through the Sparkill Gap in the Hudson Palisades, which was created by a fault line which provided the only sea-level break in the Palisades.

South Nyack was a railroad station on the Erie Railroad Northern Branch in South Nyack, New York. The station opened on May 21, 1870, and closed on December 14, 1965, when the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, successor to the Erie, ended all service north of Sparkill. It was razed in 1970.

Raymond G. Esposito Trail

The Raymond G. Esposito Trail is a 1.1 mile north-south rail trail located in the village of South Nyack, Rockland County, New York. It begins at Franklin Street Park at the corner of Cedar Hill Road and Franklin Avenue on the border of Nyack and South Nyack, which was the site of the original Nyack station, and continues as the Old Erie Path upon crossing the border into Grand View-on-Hudson. The trail takes its name from Raymond Esposito, a long-time village official who died in 1986.

Joseph B. Clarke Rail Trail

The Joseph B. Clarke Rail Trail is a paved 3.8 mile north-south rail trail in the town of Orangetown, Rockland County, New York. It begins at the Blauvelt Free Library on Western Highway in the hamlet of Blauvelt, and ends at the intersection of Oak Tree Road in the hamlet of Tappan. The trail intersects the Old Erie Path at Depot Square in Sparkill.

The Erie Railroad Piermont Branch was a rail line that was part of the original main line of the Erie. It ran from Suffern, New York to Sparkill, New York, originally terminating at the Piermont pier. After the section in Piermont section was demolished, it ran with the Northern Branch from Sparkill to Nyack, New York.

References

  1. Old Erie Path
  2. "COMMUTERS LOSE BID TO KEEP ERIE TRAINS", The New York Times, p. 58, October 3, 1966, retrieved June 7, 2010
  3. National Park Service
  4. Grand View station
  5. Sparkill