How things change with time...

A friend of mine submitted this at deviantART. Your looking at Rutherford and Lyndhurst from the air looking east. Look at how things have changed...

http://www.deviantart.com/view/16535203/

From the photo, taken in the 1930's, you can see how flat and wide open the meadows used to be. No highways existed, landfills didn't consume the meadows. Nothing was there, except rails.

Bridges visible:
Erie HX Draw
Erie DB Draw (OOS)

DL&W Original Lyndhurst Draw(?)
DL&W Original Upper Hack (Replaced)

PRR Portal Draw

Railroads Visible:
Erie NY & NJ Railroad (Present NJT Pascack Valley)
Erie Bergen County Cutoff (Present NJT Bergen County Line)
Erie Main Line (Present NS Carlton Hill Spur - OOS)
Erie NY & Greenwood Lake Branch (Present NS Boonton Line - OOS)
Erie Newark Industrial Branch Present NS Newark Industrial - OOS)
Erie Croxton Yard

DL&W Boonton Line (Present NJT Main Line)
DL&W Kingsland-Harrison Branch (Present NS Kingsland Branch - OOS)
DL&W Secaucus Yard (Gone)

PRR Main Line (Present Amtrak NEC)

Wonderful photo!
If they ever invent a time machine, railfans will go nuts.
I'd love to spend a few weeks "living" in that time...
BigDell

Time Machines:

A neat game a friend of mine and I play is to plan long train trips in particular decades using old rail guides and paying fares of back then with money of today. A big room sleeper round trip NYC/West Coast makes Southwest Airlines look expensive. And, dining cars (prices more than big city hotels) look great in today's dollars.

Oh, and up to the early 50s it was easy to get cab rides -- either just by asking the engineer and/or conductor or by contacting the company with a formal letter of request.

If only digital video cameras with sound existed back then....

that's a great picture, thanks for posting.

The Erie split at BJ is also visible, just (left / west) of the Rutherford station. The Pascack junction is just under the two black lines about four inches from the station, and the rail-line makes a faint trace in the swamp. Note the absence of industry in E Ruth and Carlstadt, that's now densely built up.

Late 1930s might be a good marker, since Croxton hadn't yet gotten its wartime expansion (note the size diff between Crox and West Secaucus yards) or its 1950s new loop. The Clifton ITT Defense plant isn't visible, and I think that went in about 1940-1941, with major expansions later. NJ 3 isn't there, either.

Also note the DL&W kingsland shops in the extreme right, and the eastern wye loop from the Harrison Connector to the Boonton line.

Wow, that is an awesome photo! It is also an awesomely large photo.

Cool to see the BCL in its pre-aligned Secaucus configuration, the absense of Harmon Cove and I do believe that is Kinglsand toward the bottom right without its legendary passenger overpass.

sullivan1985 wrote:A friend of mine submitted this at deviantART. Your looking at Rutherford and Lyndhurst from the air looking east. Look at how things have changed...

http://www.deviantart.com/view/16535203/

From the photo, taken in the 1930's, you can see how flat and wide open the meadows used to be. No highways existed, landfills didn't consume the meadows. Nothing was there, except rails.

Bridges visible:
Erie HX Draw
Erie DB Draw (OOS)

DL&W Original Lyndhurst Draw(?)
DL&W Original Upper Hack (Replaced)

PRR Portal Draw

Add to the list of visible bridges Paterson Plank Road, what I assume was a drawbridge, between East Rutherford/Carlstadt and Secaucus. When did that come out? I'll guess that there were trolleys on it at one time??

Great photo. Looking carefully, through the haze (or more likely, steam locomotive smoke), one can see the CNJ Jersey City Terminal area as well as the CNJ Liberty Street, NYC, ferry terminal.

gravelyfan wrote:Add to the list of visible bridges Paterson Plank Road, what I assume was a drawbridge, between East Rutherford/Carlstadt and Secaucus. When did that come out? I'll guess that there were trolleys on it at one time??

The Paterson Plank bridge was removed after Rt. 3 was built, and yes, Trollies ran over it between Hoboken, Rutherford and Paterson for years.

There is no sign of any work building RT 3 in the picture. I drove on the RT 3 bridge over the Hackensak in 1939.

About 1937 they were constructing the Rt 3 overpass over the Northern by the Nortrh Bergen Station.


They were building Rt 3 in 1939 btween then Rt 2, (Now Rt. 17) east to the then Rt 20,,now 120 connection to Paterson Plank Road w west of the Hackensack River.

RT 2 (17) then a recently opened three lane highway is clearly visible along the West Side of the Meadowlands.

My guesstimate, the photo could not be much later than 1935.