West End, Jersey City

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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.

Downtown Jersey City human settlement in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States of America

Downtown is an area of Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, which includes the Historic Downtown and the Waterfront. Historic Downtown can be further broken down into the neighborhoods of Harsimus Cove, The Village, Van Vorst Park, Grove Street, Hamilton Park and Boyle Plaza. The Waterfront includes the Powerhouse Arts District/WALDO, Newport, the Harborside Financial Center and Paulus Hook. Historic Downtown is the area west of Marin Boulevard, while the Waterfront lies to the east.

Jersey City, New Jersey City in Hudson County, New Jersey, U.S.

Jersey City is the second most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark. It is the seat of Hudson County as well as the county's largest city. As of 2018, the Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that Jersey City's population was 265,549, with the largest population increase of any municipality in New Jersey since 2010, an increase of about 9.4% from the 2010 United States Census, when the city's population was at 247,597, ranking the city the 78th-most-populous in the nation.

The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP), known colloquially as "the Turnpike", is a system of controlled-access highways in New Jersey, maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA). The 117.20-mile (188.62 km) mainline's southern terminus is at the interchange with U.S. Route 130 (US 130) and Route 49, where the split of Interstate 295 (I-295) and US 40 occurs, near the border of Pennsville and Carneys Point townships in Salem County, one mile (1.6 km) east of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Its northern terminus is at US 46 in Ridgefield Park, Bergen County. Construction of the mainline from concept to completion took 23 months, from 1950 to 1952. It was officially opened to traffic in November 1951, between its southern terminus and exit 10.

Contents

History

The area of the West End once was divided by a creek (or stream) known as Bergen Creek, Harsimus Creek or Mill Creek. To the east of the creek (approximately where the railroad runs between Grand Street and Wayne Street), was Harsimus Island, corrupted from "Ashki'muis", Lenape for "sea maize" [1]

Lenape Indigenous people originally from Lenapehoking, now the Mid-Atlantic United States

The Lenape, also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in Canada and the United States. Their historical territory included present-day New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania along the Delaware River watershed, New York City, western Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley. Today, Lenape people belong to the Delaware Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma; the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin; and the Munsee-Delaware Nation, Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and Delaware of Six Nations in Ontario.

In 1760, Jacob Prior constructed a tidewater mill at Mill Creek, a tidal creek running through the marshlands separating Harsimus Island from the rest of Bergen Neck. The creek emptied into Communipaw Bay (at the south, to the north it emptied into the Hudson River at the Hoboken border) at Mill Creek Point (formerly called Jan de Lacher's Hoeck or John the Laugher's Hook, after Jan Evertsen Bout, one of the first two European settlers in the area [2] [3] ), where a dam was built to allow water to enter the creek at high tide, without losing it at low tide. [4] Mill Creek Point was located near where Pine Street and the railroad tracks are today in Jersey City. [5]

Tidelands are the territory between the high and low water tide line of sea coasts, and lands lying under the sea beyond the low-water limit of the tide, considered within the territorial waters of a nation. The United States Constitution does not specify whether ownership of these lands rests with the federal government or with individual states. Originally little commercial value was attached to tidelands, so ownership was never firmly established, but the coastal states generally proceeded as if they were the owners. Some states, such as Mississippi, directly administer these lands under the public trust doctrine.

Bergen Neck

Bergen Neck is a name for 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.

In 1837, the creek was filled, in order to construct railroad tracks and the following year, Prior's Mill was razed. Decades later, in 1880, the house on the property was razed. [6] A nearby street named Mill Road remembers Prior's Mill, though there is no sign of the creek today. The mill's former location today is just north of Wayne Street, between Ristaino Circle and the railroad overpass.

Demolition tearing-down of buildings and other structures

Demolition, or razing, is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other man-made structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for reuse purposes.

Street etymologies

Factory facility where goods are made, or processed

A factory,manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial site, usually consisting of buildings and machinery, or more commonly a complex having several buildings, where workers manufacture goods or operate machines processing one product into another.

Bergen Hill lower Hudson Palisades in 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 River, and their bays. In Hudson County, it reaches a height of 260 feet.

The Jersey City and Bergen Point Plank Road was a road 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 to improve one that had been built in the 18th century. It has subsequently become Grand Street and Garfield Avenue in Jersey City and Broadway in Bayonne. Plank roads were built during the 19th century, often by private companies as turnpike roads, in this case with a tollgate at Communipaw Junction. 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.

Related Research Articles

Hudson County, New Jersey County in the United States

Hudson County, a county in the U.S. state of New Jersey, lies west of the lower Hudson River, which was named for Henry Hudson, the sea captain who explored the area in 1609. Part of New Jersey's Gateway Region in the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City is its largest city and county seat.

Bergen Arches

Bergen Arches is an abandoned railroad right of way through Bergen Hill in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Exchange Place station (Pennsylvania 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 in response to local nomenclature. 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. The terminal was located on Paulus Hook, which in 1812 became the landing of the first steam ferry service in the world, and to which rail service began in 1834. Train service to the station ended in November 1961 and demolition of the building complex was completed in 1963. Part of the former terminal complex is now the PATH system's Exchange Place Station.

Ridgefield Township was a township that existed in Bergen County, New Jersey. The township was created in 1871, when Hackensack Township was trisected to form Palisades Township in the northernmost third, Englewood Township in the central strip and Ridgefield Township encompassing the southernmost portion, stretching from the Hudson River on the east to the Hackensack River, with Hudson County to the south. Much of the area had been during the colonial area known as the English Neighborhood. As described in the 1882 book, History of Bergen and Passaic counties, New Jersey,

Ridgefield is the first township in Bergen County which the traveler enters in passing up the Palisades. His first impressions are much like those of old Hendrick Hudson in speaking of a wider extent of country: "A very good land to fall in with, and a pleasant land to see." The valley of the Hackensack invited early settlers in the seventeenth century, and the valley of the Overpeck Creek, a navigable arm of the Hackensack, also attracted settlers quite as early in this direction. Sloops and schooners can pass up this creek nearly to the northern boundary of the township. Ridgefield is bounded on the north by Englewood, on the east by the Hudson, on the south by Hudson County, and on the west by the Hackensack River. The southern boundary is less than two miles in extent, and the northern less than four, and the length of the township from north to south does not exceed four miles. Bellman's Creek, forming part of the southern boundary, the Hackensack, the Overpeck, the Hudson, with more than a dozen other smaller streams and rivulets, bountifully supply the whole township with water. From the western border of the Palisades the land descends to the Overpeck, forming a most beautiful valley, with the land again rising to a high ridge midway between the Overpeck and the Hackensack. From this long ridge, extending far to the north beyond this township, it took its name of Ridgefield.

The New York, Susquehanna and Western, formerly the Midland Railroad, the Jersey City and Albany Railroad, and the Northern Railway of New Jersey—all running northward through the township— afford ample railroad accommodations. The Susquehanna enters the township at Bellman's Creek, and the Northern at about one hundred feet south of the creek, and at a point north and east of the Susquehanna. The Albany road in this locality is not yet constructed, diverging at present from the track of the Susquehanna between Little Ferry and Bogota stations. It has, however, an independent line projected and now under construction to New York City.

Early Settlements. Ridgefield embraces the earliest settlements in the ancient township of Hackensack, antedating even the organization of that township in 1693, and of the county of Bergen in 1675. There seems to have been no town or village compactly built, like the village of Bergen, but there were settlements both of Dutch and English in and about what was subsequently known as English Neighborhood prior to 1675. The Westervelts, the Zimcrmans, the Bantas, and the Blauvelts, all coming from Holland, settled in the middle of the seventeenth century in that locality. The ancestors of Jacob P. Westervelt, now of Hackensack Village, with himself, were born in English Neighborhood. His father was born there in 1776, and was the son of Christopher Westervelt, who was born there certainly as early as 1690, and he was the son of the original ancestor of this family, who came from Holland and settled on Overpeck Creek, within the present limits of Ridgefield township, probably about 1670.

Harsimus Cove station Hudson–Bergen Light Rail station

Harsimus Cove is a station on the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) located at Metro Plaza Drive in the Harsimus Section of downtown Jersey City, New Jersey. It is served by the 8th Street-Hoboken and West Side Avenue-Tonnelle Avenue branches at all times, and the Bayonne Flyer during rush hours.

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 1887 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 Hudson and Manhattan Railroad subway line serviced the station. The station was abandoned in 1958 and demolished in 1961.

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

Croxton is a section of Jersey City in the New Jersey Meadowlands in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.

County Route 501 (New Jersey) highway in New Jersey

County Route 501, abbreviated CR 501, is a county highway in New Jersey in two segments spanning Middlesex, Hudson and Bergen Counties. The southern section runs from South Plainfield to Perth Amboy, the northern section runs from Bayonne to Rockleigh, and the two sections are connected by New York State Route 440 across Staten Island.

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 RiverWalk a is partially constructed greenway along the Newark Bay and Hackensack River on the west side of the Bergen Neck peninsula in Hudson County, New Jersey. The eight-mile walkway, following the contour of the water's edge, will run between the southern tip at Bergen Point, where it may connect to the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, and Eastern Brackish Marsh in the north. Existing parks and promenades have been incorporated and some new sections have been built, but there remain large gaps. There is a RiverWalk in the city of Hackensack, sometimes called the Hackensack RiverWalk, but they are not part of the same project nor are they connected. A parallel walkway on the west banks of the river is known as the Meadow Path.

Harsimus neighborhood in Jersey City, New Jersey

Harsimus is a neighborhood within Downtown Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. The neighborhood stretches from the Harsimus Stem Embankment on the north to Christopher Columbus Drive on the south between Coles Street and Grove Street or more broadly, to Marin Boulevard. It borders the neighborhoods of Hamilton Park to the north, Van Vorst Park to the south, the Village to the west, and the Powerhouse Arts District to the east. Newark Avenue has traditionally been its main street. The name is from the Lenape, used by the Hackensack Indians who inhabited the region and could be translated as Crow’s Marsh. From many years, the neighborhood was part of the "Horseshoe", a political delineation created by its position between the converging rail lines and political gerrymandering.

Van Vorst Park neighborhood in Jersey City, New Jersey

Van Vorst Park is an upper income neighborhood in the Historic Downtown of Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, centered on a park sharing the same name. The neighborhood is located west of Paulus Hook and Marin Boulevard, north of Grand Street, east of the Turnpike Extension, and south of The Village and Christopher Columbus Drive. Much of it is included in the Van Vorst Park Historical District.

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.

West Side, Jersey City neighborhood of Jersey City

The West Side of Jersey City is an area made up of several diverse neighborhoods on either side of West Side Avenue, one of the city's main shopping streets. Parallel and west of Kennedy Boulevard, West Side Avenue carries two county route designations.

Historic districts in Hudson County, New Jersey

Hudson County, New Jersey has historic districts which have been designated as such on a municipal, state, or federal level, or combination therof. Some are listed on New Jersey Register of Historic Places and are included on National Register of Historic Places listings in Hudson County, New Jersey. The following is intended to be a list of places which encompasses an area or group of buildings or structures.

Summit Avenue (Hudson Palisades) street in Hudson County, New Jersey

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.

Hilltop, Jersey City human settlement in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States of America

The Hilltop is the eastern section of the Journal Square district of Jersey City, New Jersey. The name is a reflection of its location atop Bergen Hill, the southern portion of the Hudson Palisades, on either side of the cut, or excavated ravine, through which the Port Authority Trans Hudson rapid transit system travels, offering some streets views of Downtown Jersey City, the New York Skyline, and the Upper New York Bay.

Bergen Section, Jersey City Place in New Jersey, United States

The Bergen Section of Jersey City, New Jersey is the neighborhood on either side of Kennedy Boulevard between Saint Peter's College/ McGinley Square and Communipaw Avenue in the Bergen-Lafayette section of the city. The name Bergen, used throughout Hudson County, is taken from the original Bergen, New Netherland settlement at Bergen Square.

References

  1. ↑ Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association. Volume 6. The New York State Historical Association, 1906.
  2. ↑ "Old Bergen, Chapter VIII", CityofJerseyCity.org, web: CoJC8.
  3. ↑ Article, www.GreenApple.com, 2010, web: GA770.
  4. ↑ "Prior's Mill", NJCU.edu, 2010, web: NJCU-Priors.
  5. ↑ "Old Bergen, Chapter X", CityofJerseyCity.org, web: CoJCX.
  6. ↑ Prior's Mill

Coordinates: 40°44′00″N74°05′37″W / 40.7332°N 74.0935°W / 40.7332; -74.0935

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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