Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal

Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
New Jersey Register of Historic Places
CRRNJ Terminal at Liberty State Park showing ferry slips serving boats to Statue of Liberty National Monument, Ellis Island and Liberty Island
Location:	Liberty State Park
Coordinates:	40°42′30″N 74°2′39″W / 40.70833°N 74.04417°W / 40.70833; -74.04417Coordinates: 40°42′30″N 74°2′39″W / 40.70833°N 74.04417°W / 40.70833; -74.04417
Area:	63 acres (25 ha)
Built:	1889
Architect:	William H. Peddle, Peabody & Stearns
Architectural style:	Richardsonian Romanesque
Governing body:	State
NRHP Reference#:	75001138 [1]
NJRHP #:	1513[2]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	September 12, 1975
Designated NJRHP:	August 27, 1975

Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, sometimes known as Communipaw Terminal was the Central Railroad of New Jersey's waterfront passenger terminal at the mouth of the Hudson River at the Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey.^[3]

Designation

The terminal was built in 1889, replacing an earlier one that had been in use since 1864. It operated until April 30, 1967.^[4] The station has been listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places^[5] and National Register of Historic Places since September 12, 1975.^[6] Additionally it is a New Jersey State Historic Site.

Site

Today, the terminal is part of Liberty State Park, and along with nearby Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty recalls the era of massive immigration through the Port of New York and New Jersey to the United States. It is estimated that around 10.5 million entered the country through the station.^[3][7] The area in which the station is located has long been known by as Communipaw, which in the Algonquian language Lenape means big landing place at the side of a river .^[8] The first stop just west of the station was indeed called called Communipaw,^[9] and was located not far from the village that had been established there in 1634 as part of the New Netherland settlement of Pavonia. The land on which the extensive yards were built were reclaimed, or filled, in a process than was first begun by the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The terminal itself is located adjacent to the Morris Canal Big Basin, which to some degree was made obsolete by the railroads which replaced it. The long cobbled road which ends at the terminal (once called Johnston Avenue for a president of CNJ) called Audrey Zapp Drive, for the environmentalist active in the creation of the park.

Description

Inside of the Communipaw Terminal

The concourse at Communipaw Terminal. The abandoned shed, which covered 12 platforms and 20 tracks^[10] is closed to the public

The main building is designed in a Richardsonian Romanesque style. The intermodal facility contains more than a dozen platforms and several ferry slips. Arriving passengers would walk to the railhead concourse and could either pass through its main wating room, by-pass it on either side, and take stairs to the upper level. The ferry slips have also been restored though the structure which housed them has been removed, as have the tracks. The Bush-type trainsheds, the largest ever to be constructed and designed by A. Lincoln Bush, were not part of the original construction, but were built in 1914 and have not been restored.^[11]

Service

Trackage

The terminal, along with its docks and yards, was one of several massive complexes that dominated the western waterfront of the New York Harbor from the mid 19th to the mid 20th century. Of the two still standing, the Hoboken Terminal is the only one still in use. Lines from the station headed to the southwest. Arriving at the waterfront from the points required overcoming significant natural obstacles including crossing the Hackensack River and Meadows and Hudson Palisades, and in the case of New Jersey Central, traversing the Newark Bay. For its mainline, the railroad constructed the Newark Bay Bridge to Elizabeth. Its Newark branch cut through Bergen Hill and crossed two bridges at Kearny Point. Both rights-of-way in Hudson County are now used by the Hudson Bergen Light Rail, one terminating at West Side Avenue and the other at 8th Street Station in Bayonne.

Railroad lines

The terminal was also used by the Reading Company and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, whose Royal Blue was a premier passenger train to Washington, DC. Jersey Central's Blue Comet provided offered elaborate service to Atlantic City. The railroad's suburban trains, some called clockers, served passengers to the west, and south including the Jersey Shore. (BENNY is term used by residents in the coast for daytrippers from Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark and New York). When the Aldene Plan was implemented in 1967 the system was dismantled or rerouted. The Aldene Connection connected to the former Lehigh Valley Railroad right-of-way, and trains were re-routed to Newark Penn Station on the Northeast Corridor. Remnants of the network remain.^[12] Both the North Jersey Coast Line and the Raritan Valley Line, which still uses the Staute of Liberty as its logo, originally originated at the terminal.

Ferries and Ships

The main ferry from the terminal crossed the river to Pier 39 at Liberty Street and West Street in Manhattan, with additional service to 23rd Street. The B&O's Royal Blue service crossed to Whitehall/South Street. Until the opening of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge there was also service to Brooklyn and Staten Island^[13] Other boats, among them the SS Asbury Park and SS Sandy Hook, which travelled to the Raritan Bayshore.^[14] In 1941, Railroad Magazine reported that the CRRNJ ferryboat fleet made 374 one-way crossings of the North River (Hudson River) each day. (Nov., p. 41)

Current uses

Following the Aldene Plan the terminal sat unused but maintained and guarded by the Central Railroad of New Jersey. During this time a portion of the movie, Funny Girl was filmed at the terminal.^[15] Following the closure of CNJ shops and engine facilities nearby in the early 1970s, the terminal sat abandoned. The terminal is one of the main attractions at Liberty State Park, housing a museum with permanent and rotating exhibitions. Ferries to the Statue of Liberty National Monument, Ellis Island and Liberty Island depart daily.^[16][17] Numerous fairs, concerts, and other sponsored events (among them the Central Jersey Heritage Festival ^[18] and the All Points West Music & Arts Festival) take place at the station and its grounds, which is a very popular place from which to view 4 July fireworks. On September 11, 2001 its parking lot was the staging area for dozens of ambulances that were mobilized to transport victims of the attack. There are proposals to built a trolley line to the terminal building and other points in the park from the Liberty State Park Station^[19] of the Hudson Bergen Light Rail, which is also served by NJT Bus 6^[20]

Gallery

• 

  The upper facade of the terminal

• 

  The grounds on the north side of the terminal

• 

  A reproduction of a tablet designator for the CNJ Blue Comet

• 

  Bush shed at CRRNJ Terminal, the largest ever built^[21]

• 

  CRRNJ and other railroad terminals ca. 1900

• 

  Map showing the terminal facility in 1910

• 

  Plans to extend the Hudson Tubes never materialized

• 

  Map of lines approaching Hudson Waterfront from south. The grey CNJ line from Bayonne to Elizabeth was carried by the CNJ's Newark Bay Bridge

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Hudson County, New Jersey
• Timeline of Jersey City area railroads
• List of ferries across the Hudson River in New York City
• List of stations on the Central Railroad of New Jersey
• National Limited
• Central Railroad of New Jersey Freight Station
• Newark Bay, New Jersey rail accident
• Newark and New York Railroad Bridge

References

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html. 
2. ^ "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places – Hudson County". NJ DEP – Historic Preservation Office. June 2, 2011. p. 7. http://www.state.nj.us/dep/hpo/1identify/lists/hudson.pdf. Retrieved 2011-06-20. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Jersey City Past and Present
4. ^ http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=13290
5. ^ New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places
6. ^ National Register of Historic Places in Hudon County
7. ^ NJ DEP LSP:Communipaw Terminal
8. ^ Indian Place names in New Jersey
9. ^ List of stations on the Central Railroad of New Jersey. (2009, August 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:31, November 21, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_stations_on_the_Central_Railroad_of_New_Jersey&oldid=307851840
10. ^ Karnoutsos, Carmela (September 16, 2009). "Jersey City Past and Present". New Jersey City University. http://www.njcu.edu/programs/jchistory/Pages/C_Pages/Central_Railroad_of_New_Jersey.html. Retrieved November 21, 2009. 
11. ^ French, Kenneth (February 24, 2002). Images of America:Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey City. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Arcadia Publishing. pp. 25–29. ISBN 978-0-7385-0966-2. http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=9780738509662&Store_Code=arcadia&search=Images+of+Rail&offset=0&filter_cat=&PowerSearch_Begin_Only=&sort=&range_low=&range_high=%20%26srch_series%3D1. Retrieved November 21, 2009. 
12. ^ Central Lines today
13. ^ French, Kenneth (2002). Images of America:Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey City. USA: Arcadia Publishing. pp. 30. ISBN 978-0-7385-0966-2. http://www.arcadiapublsihing.com. 
14. ^ French, Kenneth (2002). Images of America:Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey City. USA: Arcadia Publishing. pp. 25–29. ISBN 978-0-7385-0966-2. http://www.arcadiapublsihing.com. 
15. ^ IMDB.com "Funny Girl (1968)" filming locations
16. ^ Ferry map
17. ^ The Historic CRRNJ Train Terminal
18. ^ Website memorial to the past Jersey Central Heritage Festivals
19. ^ Kaulessar, Ricardo (September 6, 2009). "Trolley through Liberty State Park?". Hudson Reporter (Hoboken). http://hudsonreporter.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Trolley+through+Liberty+State+Park-+-Rail+fans+hope+to+bring+back+area%E2%80%99s+railroad+past-%20&id=3531094-Trolley+through+Liberty+State+Park-+-Rail+fans+hope+to+bring+back+area%E2%80%99s+railroad+past-&instance=lead_story_left_column. Retrieved May 30, 2010. 
20. ^ NJT bus 6 schedule
21. ^ http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/parks/liberty_state_park/liberty_crrnj.html

External links

• Liberty Historic Railway
• Ellis/Liberty Island Ferry map
• Wikipmapia: Communipaw Terminal
• Locomotives at NRRNJ Terminal
• Timeline of Communipaw Cove
• CRRNJ Bronx Terminal
• CRRNJ Bronx Terminal