Re: (erielack) Pascack Valley / NJ&NY

[NJNYRR_@_aol.com]

That's a great question.  "Pascack" is a local American Indian derived word 
meaning "where the water runs free" or something to that effect.  The Pascack 
Brook, which actually starts in Ramapo, NY (Spring Valley), runs down through 
Montvale, Park Ridge, through the borough and lake in Woodcliff Lake, into 
Hillsdale, Westwood, and finally River Vale where it joins the Hackensack 
River.   Before the incorporation of the towns in this area (about 1894-1905) 
Washington Township, then much larger, covered the area now known as Pascack 
Valley, so called because of its location in the coastal uplands that lead 
into the Ramapo Mountains.  Additionally, much of what is now Woodcliff Lake 
and Park Ridge was known as the Pascack section of Washington Township before 
their incorporations. 

I don't know when officially the line was called The Pascack Valley Line, 
though in that area the name was used for years before it became what NJT 
called it on the timetables.  I think it was popularly known as the Pascack 
Valley Line of the NJ&NY, which in its history also had a New City (NY) 
branch, a Garnerville (NY) freight railroad and the New York Extension RR, 
physically connected to the Pascack Valley Line and running from the NY 
border at Pearl River to Haverstraw (later cut back to Theills, now ending at 
Woodbine in Spring Valley).  I have also less commonly heard this called the 
Spring Valley Line by riders.  Although this line only in part serves the 
Pascack Valley (Emerson, Westwood, Hillsdale, Woodcliff Lake, Park Ridge and 
Montvale) it was long seen as the route to these places and a huge factor in 
their 1870's-1950's development. (After that it was subdivisions and 
affordable cars but that's a different story!)         

Michael Sheehy 
NJ & NY RR/ Erie Milepost JC 34 "Summit Park Station"

Homepages: hometown.aol.com/njnyrr
                    njnyrr.homestead.com (in progress)

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