National Docks Secondary is a
freight rail line within
Conrail
Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do bus ...
's
North Jersey Shared Assets Area in
Hudson County, New Jersey
Hudson County is the most densely populated county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It lies west of the lower Hudson River, which was named for Henry Hudson, the sea captain who explored the area in 1609. Part of New Jersey's Gateway Region in t ...
, used by
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track ...
. It provides access for the national rail network to maritime, industrial, and distribution facilities at
Port Jersey
Port Jersey, officially the Port Jersey Port Authority Marine Terminal and referred to as the Port Jersey Marine Terminal, is an intermodal freight transport facility that includes a container terminal located on the Upper New York Bay in the Po ...
, the
Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne (MOTBY), and
Constable Hook as well as
carfloat operations at
Greenville Yard
Greenville Yard is a freight rail yard in the Port of New York and New Jersey. It is located on Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey adjacent and north of Port Jersey. Originally developed in 1904 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, it was la ...
. The line is an important component in the planned expansion of facilities in the
Port of New York and New Jersey
The Port of New York and New Jersey is the port district of the New York-Newark metropolitan area, encompassing the region within approximately a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.
It includes the system of navigable wate ...
. The single track
right of way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
comprises rail beds, viaducts, bridges, and tunnels originally developed at the end of the 19th century by competing railroads.
Route
The line is used to access the port at the
Upper New York Bay
New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...
, which lies east of those crossing the
Northeast Corridor
The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston through Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington ...
. It runs parallel to the
New Jersey Turnpike Newark Bay Extension for most of its length and passes through a
cut in the
Hudson Palisades
The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson River Palisades, are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in Northeastern New Jersey and Southeastern New York in the United States. The cliffs ...
. It travels north-south on the east side of
Bergen Hill
Bergen Hill refers to the lower Hudson Palisades in New Jersey, where they emerge on Bergen Neck, which in turn is the peninsula between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers, and their bays. In Hudson County, it reaches a height of 260 feet.
Rail
...
and through a short tunnel crossing beneath the
PATH
A path is a route for physical travel – see Trail.
Path or PATH may also refer to:
Physical paths of different types
* Bicycle path
* Bridle path, used by people on horseback
* Course (navigation), the intended path of a vehicle
* Desire ...
rapid transit system. At its southern end trains cross
Newark Bay
Newark Bay is a tidal bay at the confluence of the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers in northeastern New Jersey. It is home to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the largest container shipping facility in Port of New York and New Jersey, ...
over the
Lehigh Valley Railroad Bridge to the
Oak Island Yard in
Newark. At is northern end the line travels through
Bergen Hill
Bergen Hill refers to the lower Hudson Palisades in New Jersey, where they emerge on Bergen Neck, which in turn is the peninsula between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers, and their bays. In Hudson County, it reaches a height of 260 feet.
Rail
...
via the
Long Dock Tunnel
The Long Dock Tunnel is a freight rail tunnel in Jersey City, New Jersey that is part of the North Jersey Shared Assets Area and used by CSX Transportation on the National Docks Secondary. The single track (formerly dual track) tunnel runs t ...
and after passing under
Tonnelle Avenue junctions with the
Northern Running Track. At
North Bergen Yard, the line becomes the
River Subdivision.
It is an alternate, or secondary, route to the
Passaic and Harsimus Line across the
Kearny Meadows for trains passing through the
Port of New York and New Jersey
The Port of New York and New Jersey is the port district of the New York-Newark metropolitan area, encompassing the region within approximately a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.
It includes the system of navigable wate ...
. As of June 2018, Crossing updated and expanded at Chapel Avenue and siding tracks have been added between Linden Avenue and Liberty State Park.
Renewal and expansion of port
The National Docks Secondary is an integral component in the anticipated expansion of the Liberty Corridor
and Cross Harbor Freight Movement projects, including the
intermodal container
An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from shi ...
transhipment operations on the west side of the
Upper New York Bay
New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...
in the
Port of New York and New Jersey
The Port of New York and New Jersey is the port district of the New York-Newark metropolitan area, encompassing the region within approximately a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.
It includes the system of navigable wate ...
. To that end, as of 2010, the track is being restored, tunnel clearances increased, and redundant overhead bridges removed to allow
double stacking of the high-cube containers increasingly favored for intermodal transportation.
The line will connect with
ExpressRail Port Jersey, a ship-to-rail container transfer operation, planned to open in 2014, and to the planned new
post-Panamax
Panamax and New Panamax (or Neopanamax) are terms for the size limits for ships travelling through the Panama Canal. The limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) in a publication titled "Vessel Requirements". ...
container terminal
A container port or container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example tra ...
at
MOTBY
Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne (MOTBY) was a U.S. military ocean terminal located in the Port of New York and New Jersey which operated from 1967 to 1999. From 1942 to 1967 the site was the Bayonne Naval Drydock. The site is on Upper New York ...
.
History
The line is a remnant of the extensive freight rail infrastructure that once dominated much of the
Hudson County
Hudson County is the most densely populated county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It lies west of the lower Hudson River, which was named for Henry Hudson, the sea captain who explored the area in 1609. Part of New Jersey's Gateway Region in t ...
, its
right of way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
a combination of routes originally developed by different companies. The name is taken from the National Docks Railway which maintained yards and a storage depot at
Black Tom, an island in the
Upper New York Bay
New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...
that was greatly expanded by
land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclam ...
and connected to the north of
Caven Point by a long
causeway
A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...
.
The line was built during an era of tremendous growth along the west shores of the bay and the
North River (Hudson River)
North River is an alternative name for the southernmost portion of the Hudson River in the vicinity of New York City and northeastern New Jersey in the United States. The entire watercourse was known as the North River by the Dutch in the earl ...
, fueled by competing railroads wishing to gain access to the harbor to develop
shipping
Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ext ...
and
carfloat operations as well as
intermodal passenger transport
Intermodal passenger transport, also called mixed-mode commuting, involves using two or more modes of transportation in a journey. Mixed-mode commuting is often used to combine the strengths (and offset the weaknesses) of various transportati ...
terminals.
Standard Oil era
The complex history of the line reflects the shifting alliances between competing railroads in the region. The National Storage Company was an arm of
Standard Oil
Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...
, which constructed storage and
lighterage facilities on Black Tom Island and the
Communipaw
Communipaw is a neighborhood in Jersey City in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It is located west of Liberty State Park and east of Bergen Hill, and the site of one of the earliest European settlements in North America. It gives its na ...
shoreline in 1876.
Standard Oil had a contract with the
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was na ...
(PRR) for transporting oil, but the railroad's charter prevented it from extending a line from its
cut through
Bergen Hill
Bergen Hill refers to the lower Hudson Palisades in New Jersey, where they emerge on Bergen Neck, which in turn is the peninsula between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers, and their bays. In Hudson County, it reaches a height of 260 feet.
Rail
...
to the National Storage facility. The National Storage Company was thus compelled to use the
Central Railroad of New Jersey
The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines , was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of ...
, which had tracks adjacent to the Black Tom facility.
To circumvent the restrictions on the Pennsylvania Railroad's charter, Standard Oil and the Pennsylvania colluded in 1879 to create the National Docks Railway Company, connecting the National Storage facilities directly to the Pennsylvania line. The line would of necessity run through the property of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and the Central strongly objected to the condemnation of its land for the benefit of its competitor.
After an extended legal battle, the National Docks won a surprise concession in 1882 from the Jersey City aldermen to build an elevated track between the junction with the PRR and the oil docks,
and the line was quickly constructed and opened in 1883, operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The line was subsequently extended as the
Bergen Neck Railroad to
Constable Hook in
Bayonne
Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine r ...
where Standard Oil had additional facilities.
In 1891, the Bergen Neck Railroad and the National Docks Railway were consolidated.
Six years after its initial construction, Standard Oil reached an agreement in 1889 with the
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the ...
(NYC) to connect the National Docks Railway with the NYC's
West Shore Railroad
The West Shore Railroad was the final name of a railroad that ran from Weehawken, New Jersey, on the west bank of the Hudson River opposite New York City, north to Albany, New York, and then west to Buffalo. It was organized as a competitor ...
at National Junction.
[ The line consisted of the ]New Jersey Junction Railroad
The New Jersey Junction Railroad (NJJ) was part of the New York Central Railroad and ran along the Hudson River in Hudson County, New Jersey, from the West Shore Railroad (NYCRR) yards at Weehawken Terminal south to Jersey City. It later owned ...
and the National Docks and New-Jersey Junction Connecting Railroad, with the National Docks Railway coming under the control of the NYC. It was now the Pennsylvania's turn to protest against the crossing of its property, and a costly "frog war
A frog war occurs when one private railway company attempts to cross the tracks of another, and this results in hostilities between the two railways. It is named after the frog, the piece of track that allows the two tracks to join or cross and ...
" ensued. When it was finally completed in 1897, the long tunnel under Pennsylvania's Waldo Avenue yards had cost $750,000, twice what had been projected.
Lehigh Valley era
The Lehigh Valley Railroad
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, wa ...
(LVRR) initially reached its terminal
Terminal may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together
* Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line
* Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output devic ...
on the Morris Canal Basin over the Central Railroad's line and later obtained trackage rights on the National Docks Railway. To protect access to its terminal, the LVRR acquired a half-interest in the National Docks in 1890. In 1891, the LVRR consolidated its other holdings in northeastern New Jersey to form the Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway,[ and it began running a route on a ]bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually someth ...
over Newark Bay
Newark Bay is a tidal bay at the confluence of the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers in northeastern New Jersey. It is home to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the largest container shipping facility in Port of New York and New Jersey, ...
in 1892.
In 1897, another consolidation took place with the merger of the National Docks Railway Company, New Jersey Junction Connecting Railway Company, the Kill von Kull Railway, and Bay Creek Railway, the latter two being short lines running south to Bayonne
Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine r ...
. The merged company was known as the National Docks Railway. Much of the company was eventually absorbed by the Lehigh Valley Railroad
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, wa ...
in 1898.[ By 1900, the LVRR had full ownership of the line to its terminal at the mouth of the Hudson. Under the direction of the LVRR, the National Docks Railway remained an important connecting line along the ]Hudson Waterfront
The Hudson Waterfront is an urban area of northeastern New Jersey along the lower reaches of the Hudson River, the Upper New York Bay and the Kill van Kull. Though the term can specifically mean the shoreline, it is often used to mean the contigu ...
, handling traffic for the Erie, New York Central
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the ...
, and Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
.[
In 1911, the ]Hudson and Manhattan Railroad
Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) is a rapid transit system in the northeastern New Jersey cities of Newark, Harrison, Jersey City, and Hoboken, as well as Lower and Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is operated as a wholly owned sub ...
, the forerunner of the Port Authority Trans Hudson
Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) is a rapid transit system in the northeastern New Jersey cities of Newark, Harrison, Jersey City, and Hoboken, as well as Lower and Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is operated as a wholly owned sub ...
, opened a tunnel under the PRR right of way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
from its Exchange Place terminal
The Pennsylvania Railroad Station was the intermodal passenger terminal for the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) vast holdings on the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey. By the 1920s the station was called Exchange Place ...
. It emerges in the yard and passes over what is now known as the Waldo Tunnel. The New Jersey Junction Railroad later became part of Conrail
Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do bus ...
's River Line until it was abandoned, and the right of way in Hoboken
Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...
and Weehawken
Weehawken is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located largely on the Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 17,197. is now used by Hudson Bergen Light Rail
Hudson may refer to:
People
* Hudson (given name)
* Hudson (surname)
* Henry Hudson, English explorer
* Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back
* Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudso ...
.
See also
*Timeline of Jersey City area railroads
__NOTOC__
For the purposes of this article, the Jersey City area extends North to Edgewater (the Northern end of the line along the Hudson River), South to Bayonne and includes Kearny Junction and Harrison but not Newark. Many routes east ...
*List of Hudson County railroad terminals
The table below shows all railroad lines that have served New York City and what terminal they used. A red background indicates that the railroad owned a part or full share of the terminal.
See also
*North River (Hudson River)
*Bergen Hill
...
*
* Bergen Subdivision
References
External links
* northern end
* midsection
*{{coord, 40.699052, -74.119574, format=dms, type:landmark, display=inline southern end
YouTube:Cabride on National Docks Secondary
from Long Dock Tunnel to Liberty State Park
Blue Comet website photo
Conrail seen passing JCMC
National Aemerican Engineering Record
RRpicarchiives
Cross Harbor Freight Movement Project
HAER
Rail infrastructure in New Jersey
Transportation in Hudson County, New Jersey
Lehigh Valley Railroad
Conrail lines
CSX Transportation lines
Port of New York and New Jersey
Lehigh Valley Railroad lines