1923 Aerial view of Jersey City

Maybe a few people haven't seen this one. Go to
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org and click on Advanced Search, then put 435215 into the "Enter number(s)" box. It enlarges to full screen.

While you're there, might as well look at 435216 too.

Great Photo!

Direct link:


http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigi ... Num=&pos=1


I'll try to point out a few locations:
The most obvious is the Erie RR trestle coming up from the waterfront and going through the cut known as the Arches because of the arch bridges across it, note first bridge.
The next bridge over cut, bottom of photo, and curved right of way going right from this point is a Public Service trolley line.
The big building in lower right corner is Dickerson High School.
Look close to left of trestle RR right of way that comes out of trestle. This is original Erie ROW going into original 1840s Erie RR Bergen Hill Tunnel.
The large building just to right of trestle as it starts to curve into cut is Railway Express stables. They kept horses used in New York City here. Stable boys 8 to 12 years old would take them in groups of 12 across to the city by ferry boat each morning. My grandfather was one of them. Apparently saved on NYC horse tax. Look very close at the roof. Are there horses on it? Grandfather said they would take horses to the roof for the air.
The viaduct to left of trestle is 13th. St. now gone but footings can still be found.
The RR yard under is a Lackawanna
The first street left of E.R.R. trestle is 12th.St now entrance to Holland Tunnel.
Two blocks to left/north is 14th. St. Now Exit to Holland Tunnel.
Park south of Erie trestle is Hamilton Park. Large building on park is St. Francis Hospital, Jersey City's largest and best at the time.
The street to the right of the hospital is Pavonia Ave. going east to the river on Pavonia Ave would bring you to the Eire Passenger Terminal smallest and oldest on the river even at that time. Never rebuilt it was used up to the Erie Lackawanna merger.
Erie freight yards were to north of station to 12th. Street then all the rest you see going north is Lackawanna Yards.
To the south of the Erie, all RR yards belong to the Penn.RR

Andy Brusgard

Thanks Andy, the descriptions really are helpful and thanks to timz for the original link.

Randy

Thanks to timz for the picture link and to Andy B. for the information on what's what in the photos. And wouldn't it be nice to have a time machine and go back to the 23rd of April 1923?

And wouldn't it be nice to have a time machine and go back to the 23rd of April 1923?

Especially with my digital camera!

kilroy wrote:

And wouldn't it be nice to have a time machine and go back to the 23rd of April 1923?

Especially with my digital camera!

well, sorta nice.

That looked like a smoky day, as most days back in coal fired heating were. Probably a lot of horse-muck in the streets, too. Much asthma and tuberculosis.

Lots of polio, and two million people had died of influenza just five years earlier. American soldiers were being killed in faroff places like Nicaragua, Haiti, Phillipines, etc.

Didn't have to worry about kids spending too much time on videogames, as many of them were working. Cleaning out loco boilers and the like.


(spoilsport!!!!)

Just a question...

The Erie trestle line in the middle with those block signals is that what you see under you when you get off the turnpike and make the right turn toward the Holland Tunnel? If you look under the road just at it veers to the right towards the tunnel you can see an old ROW with the block signal towers. It parallels the entrance to the tunnel. Is that it?

Can anyone tell me when this line was torn up and why? Also when were most of the RR yards along the river abandoned/torn up? I'm assuming they served the once-industrial Manhattan.

Also the bridge with the RR yard under it. What was this yard and is anything left of it?

I checked out Jersey City on google maps satelite and literally 100% of this rr activity is gone.

carajul wrote:Just a question...

The Erie trestle line in the middle with those block signals is that what you see under you when you get off the turnpike and make the right turn toward the Holland Tunnel? If you look under the road just at it veers to the right towards the tunnel you can see an old ROW with the block signal towers. It parallels the entrance to the tunnel. Is that it?
.

That's it. If you're stopped at the traffic lights on the way into the tunnel, you have a great view of the huge cut stones used to support the embankment, too.

The Erie started moving its passenger trains into the Lackawanna's Hoboken terminal around 1957, and as I recall the last Erie/NYSW passenger train left Jersey City in 1960, or maybe even 1959. No idea how much use the Erie-Lackawanna had for that line after that.

I think the Erie Pavonia terminal was torn down in the early 1960s, and at least a part of the trainyard and ex-platforms area was converted to parking by the early 1970s.

I distinctly remember coming up from the PATH station and looking behind me to see a large parking lot where the terminal had been, circa 1975. Back then, only the street entrance to PATH was open to the public. The platform stairways to the ramp had already been closed off.

(Note: I know I'm verging off topic here)

So you're saying that once the Erie and the Lackawanna merged, there was only needed 1 station, the current NJT Lackawanna station was chosen, thus the mainline shown in this photo thru Jersey City was no longer needed?

And man what about all those freight yards? It's like the entire Jersey shore was nothing but a solid RR yard. There is *nothing* left of that nowadays. No industry at all. Just a few spurs where oil tanks and car lots are served.

Yeah, we forgot to make clear that that Erie trestle was mainly (at least) for passenger trains-- freights could use the tunnel and come out at ground level next to the trestle.

I forgot to check, but it's at least possible that the last passenger train ran over the trestle before the E-L merger.

The Erie and the DL&W made an agreement in 1957 to share the DL&W's Hoboken terminal for commuter and ferry operations. This agreement predated the Erie Lackawanna merger by 3 years. Most Erie commuter trains terminated in Hoboken rather than Jersey City after that date.

I think the trestle came down around 1980 as I remember coming out of The Holland Tunnel around then and as I was heading over to 1&9, looking
out to my left and being surprised to see it being pulled down.I went down to Pavonia in mid-80's before The Newport Mall was built and a few remnants of the platforms were still there.This was just as the eminent
domain between Jersey City and McAllister Tugs was heating up.There was
a decaying Hudson River excursion boat there but I can't remember the name of it.I stay at Marriot Courtyard or The Holland Motor Lodge from time to time and it's amazing to consider the amount of rail activity that was in the immediate area.It's a real commentary on the fact that we're
now a service economy with a huge trade deficit.

Looking at all those tracks that used to be on that waterfront, it's a real wonder that the PANY insisted on building a container port in Newark Bay instead of NY Harbor or along the Hudson...