(rshsdepot) CNJ Terminal: Jersey City, NJ

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From the Jersey City Reporter.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
 
Where all of the trains met up 
 
Central Railroad Terminal a reminder of Jersey City's railroad  past 

Ricardo Kaulessar 
Reporter staff writer   10/13/2007  

REMINDER OF RAILROAD PAST – The CRRNJ  (Central Railroad of New Jersey) 
Terminal, located in Liberty State Park in  Jersey City, dates back to 1889 and was 
once where 30,000 to 50,000 people per  day used trains and ferries.   

In the same way that skyscrapers currently dot the Jersey City skyline,  
railroads marked much of the city's landscape a hundred years ago.
 
The Erie Lackawanna, the Baltimore & Ohio, the Pennsylvania, the  Hudson, and 
the Manhattan were just some of the train lines that ran through the  city, 
full of passengers and freight.
 
Even today, some old-timers mistakenly call Christopher Columbus Drive in  
downtown Jersey City by its old name, Railroad Avenue. And remnants of the  
"rail" Jersey City abound, from the rising wall of stone known as the Sixth  
Street Embankment to the old track lines that today carry NJ Transit light rail  
cars.
 
Last Sunday, former employees of the Central Railroad of New Jersey  (CRRNJ), 
along with other railroad aficionados, gathered at the CRRNJ terminal  for 
the fourth Annual Jersey Central Railroad Heritage Festival, where they  showed 
memorabilia of their years on the railroad.
 
There is also talk of bringing old railroad equipment collected by various  
New Jersey historic railroad groups into the terminal for public viewing. 

Among the people who gathered at the terminal was Frank T. Reilly, who  
worked for the Central Railroad and rode some of the last trains that came out  of 
the Jersey City terminal on April 30, 1967.
 
"It was sad to see this massive terminal shut down," Reilly said.
 
Recently, the terminal, located in Liberty State Park, has been used a  
number of ways, including hosting the Liberty Science Center while it was  
undergoing two years of renovations. The science center recently returned to its  
renovated headquarters elsewhere in the park.
 
"I remember when we rode the last passenger train out of here," Reilly said  
last week. "All the locomotives that were active laid on their air horns until 
 we were out of sight." 
 
Reilly continued, "That gave me goosebumps." 
 
Opened in 1889 
 
The CRRNJ terminal opened in 1889. The terminal featured a three-story head  
house, joining 12 tracks with six platforms to the ferry slips by the Hudson  
River.
 
It would later grow to include service and repair facilities, barges, and  
thawing sheds.
 
Much of that is gone now. But after years of decline, the terminal was  
restored and reopened in 1980 as a landmark that people can visit for  free.
 
It still retains much of its original interior today, transporting visitors  
back to an age of steam engines, when conductors called, "All aboard!"
 
The building has a display of photos inside.
 
Today, the terminal is not only a place for sightseeing but also holds a  
ticket office for ferries to Liberty State Park and Ellis Island as well as  
offices for the NJ Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Parks  and 
Forestry, which operates the park year-round. 
 
Terminal effect 
 
Overgrown with foliage, its steel covering rusting after years of being  
unused, the section where tracks ran through the terminal is now abandoned and  
closed off to the public.
 
But there are visible signs marking the track numbers, showing various  stops 
across New Jersey such as Elizabeth, Newark and Dunellen.
 
And there's a track just outside the terminal with old boxcars to remind  
people of the activity that once existed.
 
According to various sources, the Central Railroad itself was formed in  1849 
out of the remnants of the Elizabeth and Somerville Railroad Company. By  
1860, the Central Railroad had built a base in Jersey City. In 1864, the  
railroad constructed its first terminal on landfill from New York City and  ballast 
from ocean-going vessels.
 
Twenty-five years later, the new terminal - which is what the public sees  
now - opened for travel. 
 
Immigration boomed 
 
The opening of the new terminal happened in correlation with the expansion  
of the Central Railroad throughout New Jersey, especially in Jersey City.
 
It also came at a time when immigration to the U.S. boomed, as millions of  
newcomers came from Europe and other parts of the world.
 
By 1900, the CRRNJ Terminal handled between 30,000-50,000 people per day on  
128 ferry runs and 300 trains. Those who came through the terminal after 1889  
saw an architectural gem.
 
A description on New Jersey City University's website section on "Jersey  
City Past and Present" sums up the details of the new terminal: "The interior  
includes a concourse, ticket office, and waiting room of English buff-colored  
glazed brick walls on the first floor. Iron and wood hydraulic bridges, outside 
 the front doors of the terminal assisted commuters to board waiting ferries  
traveling to New York City. The ceiling of the waiting room is supported by 
red  iron trusses in a starburst design. Red iron buttresses with a wreath 
design  also appear under the balcony in the waiting room."
 
The terminal complex was expanded in 1914 with a double-deck ferry shed  
(which no longer exists) and a train shed (which still exists) of over 300,000  
square feet. It covers 20 tracks and 12 passenger platforms "through a series of 
 pitched concrete roofs."
 
The "Black Tom" sabotage explosion in 1916 before World War I occurred  south 
of the terminal and damaged the train shed. 
 
Starting around the time of the Great Depression, railroads went into  
decline due to competition from the increase of cars, trucks, and roads.
 
The death knell came in 1967, when the federally-created Aldene Plan called  
for the rerouting of all major train traffic to the Penn Station in Newark.  
Shortly afterward, CRRNJ declared bankruptcy and passenger operations  
discontinued. 
 
For comments on the story, contact Ricardo Kaulessar at 
_rkaulesssar_@_hudsonreporter.com_ (mailto:rkaulesssar@hudsonreporter.com)   





************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com

=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
To Unsubscribe: http://lists.railfan.net/rshsdepot-photo/unsub.html

------------------------------