Hudson River Waterfront Walkway

The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, located on Kill van Kull and the western shore of Upper New York Bay and the Hudson River, is an ongoing and incomplete project inspired by a New Jersey state-mandated master plan to connect the municipalities from the Bayonne Bridge to the George Washington Bridge with an urban linear park and provide contiguous unhindered access to the water's edge. There is no projected date for its completion, though large segments have been built or incorporated into it since its inception. The southern end in Bayonne may eventually connect to the Hackensack RiverWalk, another proposed walkway along Newark Bay and Hackensack River on the west side of the Hudson County peninsula. Its northern end is in Palisades Interstate Park, allowing users to continue along the river bank and alpine paths to the New Jersey/New York state line and beyond. (A connection to the Long Path, a convert|330|mi|km|sing=on hiking trail with terminus near Albany, is feasible.)As of 2007, eleven miles (18 km) of walkway have been completed, with an additional five miles (8 km) designated HRWW along Broadway in Bayonne.

Route

The distance of the walkway from beginning to end is approximately convert|18.5|mi|km as it follows the contour of the shore-line. It traverses established residential and commercial areas, re-developed piers, wetland preservation zones, industrial and transportation infrastructure, and is dotted with public and private marinas. Expansive views of the water and the New York skyline can be seen from most of its length. It will eventually pass through the following municipalities (which have combined population of approximately 550,000).

*Bayonne (2000 population of 61,842)
*Jersey City (240,055)
*Hoboken (38,577)
*Weehawken (13,501)
*West New York (45,768)
*Guttenberg (10,807)
*North Bergen (58,092)
*Edgewater (7,677)
*Fort Lee (35,461)

History

A walkway or promenade along the northeastern New Jersey waterfront was first discussed at a state level in the late 1970s. In 1988, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection created the Coastal Zone Management Rules, which outlined the regulations and specifications for its construction. They require anyone building within convert|100|ft|m of the water's edge to provide a minimum of convert|30|ft|m wide open, public space along it. Construction must be permitted by the agency and paid for by the developer. In 1999, the National Association of Home Builders and the New Jersey Builders Association challenged the obligation in court as an unfair taking of private property under eminent domain, saying that property owners should be compensated as specified by the "Takings clause" of the Fifth Amendment. A federal judge rejected the suit, upholding a state rule that requires property owners to provide access to the waterfront. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E1D61738F93AA2575BC0A96F958260 "Judge Upholds Law on Waterfront Access"] , "The New York Times", August 19, 1999. Accessed October 7, 2007.]

Obstacles and advantages

*The land upon which the walkway is built (or to be built) is held privately and publicly, and in the case of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, semi-publicly.
*Privately held land is not required to have a walkway until it is re-developed. Some areas have been intensely privatized with wealthy residents who prefer to avoid the passage of the general public walkway through their neighborhood.
*The topography is diverse, with some canals or coves that come quite far inland, requiring the walkway to either go around them or cross them with bridges.
*Transportation, industrial, or maritime infrastructure is found along the route, and construction of HRWW could interfere with their operation and public safety.
*Each municipality implements and enforces its own zoning rules, and often negotiates with developers with a local rather than regional interest, and have other municipal open-space projects to which funds must be dedicated.
*Much of the land which the walkway crosses had maritime or industrial uses and became obsolete or was abandoned. The area south of Caven Point, though, is still actively used for these purposes.
*Most housing and commercial real-estate developers see the advantage of providing access to the water as a selling point
*Some sections of the walkway are easily accessible by public transportation, such as the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, NY Waterway ferries, and New Jersey Transit bus terminals at Hoboken Terminal and Exchange Place.

Parks and Points of Interest

*Bergen Point
**Bayonne Bridge, world's third-longest steel arch bridge
**Kill van Kull Park
**Bradys Dock
**former Standard Oil Tank Cleaning Services/Texaco Tank Farm
**Port Johnson

**Constable Hook
**Robbins Reef Light
**Bayonne Golf Course-site of most extensive brownfields reclamation project in New Jersey
*The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, site of former Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne
**Tear of Grief-gift from Russia commemorating September 11, 2001
**Cape Liberty Cruise Port
*Port Jersey (Industrial and Marine Center)
**Greenville Channel
**Waterfront Observation Tower and bird sanctuary (for endangered least tern, among others)
**Liberty National Golf Course-southern section
*Caven Point
**Cochrane Athletic Field
**US Army Corps of Engineers station
**Port Liberte
**Liberty State Park-Caven Point Branch
**US Army Reserve Center
**Liberty National Golf Course-main section

*Liberty State Park
**Black Tom, site of World War I sabotage explosion
**Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal
**Circle Line ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island
**Liberty Science Center
**Morris Canal Big Basin

*Paulus Hook
**Liberty State Park-Peninsula Park
**Morris Canal-Little Basin
**Colgate Clock, with claims to being the world's largest
**Goldman Sachs Tower, tallest building in New Jersey.
**Exchange Place, downtown Jersey City's "financial" district

*Pavonia
**Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Powerhouse
**Harsimus Cove. [Applebome, Peter. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F03E5DD1F3FF930A3575BC0A9639C8B63 "Our Towns; A Promenade and a Trail, Ready to Meet a Greenway"] , "The New York Times", August 3, 2005. Accessed October 7, 2007.]
**Pavonia/Newport, site of one of New Jersey's first European settlements and first genocide of Native Americans by them and of Erie Railroad's Pavonia Terminal (1861-1958)
**Holland Tunnel Ventilation Tower, with twin across river
**Long Canal
*Hoboken
**Hoboken Terminal, 1908 national landmark and major transportation hub
**Pier A
**Marineview Plaza, urban renewal project in the Brutalist style
**Stevens Institute of Technology
**Castle Point, serpentine rock bluff
**Sybil's Cave, long-abandoned site of spring and inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe's "The Mystery of Marie Roget"
**Elysian Park
** [http://www.hobokenmuseum.org/ Hoboken Historical Museum]
**Hudson Tea Building, massive former Lipton Tea plant
**Weehawken Cove, where Henry Hudson's Half Moon anchored in 1609

*North Hudson
**Riva Point
**The Atrium, home to events sponsored by the proposed Hudson River Performing Arts Center
**King's Bluff, at the foot of which the Burr-Hamilton duel took place in 1804
**Lincoln Tunnel Ventilation Towers
**Weehawken Municpal Athletic Fields
**West Shore Railroad Tunnel, used by Hudson-Bergen Light Rail
**NY Waterway Ferry Terminal
**"Kestrel", a historic steam yacht
**Galaxy Towers, a trio of octagonal highrises built in the late 1970s
**Palisades Medical Center

*Edgewater
**Edgewater Driving Range
**Hess Oil Tank Farm
**Edgewater Cemetery, with 19th and 20th century graves
**"The Binghamton", decommissioned ferry and registered national historic place
**Mitsuwa Marketplace
**Municipal Building
**Marina Park and Ferry Terminal
**Veterans Park/Edgewater Community Center-site of plaque commemorating Vriessendael, the first European settlement in what would become contemporary Bergen County

*Palisades Interstate Park
**Bluff Point, atop which sits Fort Lee Historic Park, site of George Washington's 1776 encampment
**George Washington Bridge

References