Pershing Road is a road located entirely in

Weehawken, New Jersey 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.

that travels for on 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 s ...

between

Boulevard East Boulevard East (officially John F. Kennedy Boulevard East, and sometimes referred to as JFK Boulevard East) is a two-way, mostly two lane, scenic county road in the North Hudson, New Jersey municipalities of Weehawken, West New York, Guttenberg ...

and Weehawken Port Imperial, and carries the designation Hudson County Route 682. At County Route 505 (Boulevard East), the road meets 48th Street (County Route 684), one of the very few two-way streets in the urban grid of North Hudson, which travels west to Bergenline Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard. It is named for

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

hero John J. Pershing. Earlier names have included Clifton Road, named for the estate on whose land it was located, and Hillside Road, which would speak to its location. Pershing Road, like the

Hackensack Plank Road The Hackensack Plank Road, also known as Bergen Turnpike, was a major artery which connected the cities of Hoboken and Hackensack, New Jersey. Like its cousin routes, the Newark Plank Road and Paterson Plank Road, it travelled over Bergen Hill a ...

and the

Paterson Plank Road Paterson Plank Road is a road that runs through Passaic, Bergen and Hudson Counties in northeastern New Jersey. The route, originally laid in the colonial era, connects the city of Paterson and the Hudson River waterfront. It has largely been su ...

, provides access between the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

waterfront and the top of the cliffs and ascends parallel to the face of the escarpment. Between 1892 and 1949, street cars, initially operated by the North Hudson Railway Company, and later the

Public Service Railway Transport of New Jersey (TNJ), earlier Public Service Transportation and then Public Service Coordinated Transport, was a street railway and bus company in the U.S. state of New Jersey from 1917 to 1980, when NJ Transit took over their operations ...

lines 9-Coytesville 19-Union City, 21-West New York, 23-Palisade, and 25-Weehawken ran along the road to the

Weehawken Terminal Weehawken Terminal was the waterfront intermodal terminal on the North River (Hudson River) in Weehawken, New Jersey for the New York Central Railroad's West Shore Railroad division, whose route traveled along the west shore of the Hudson River ...

, where ferries traversing the river to

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

departed. From 1913 until the 1927 opening of the

Holland Tunnel The Holland Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River that connects the New York City neighborhood of Hudson Square in Lower Manhattan to the east with Jersey City in New Jersey to the west. The tunnel is operated by the Port Author ...

, Pershing Road was a component of the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...

, the first transcontinental highway in the United States. The bridge at the foot of the road, comprising jack arches, was built in 1927, originally crossing over the

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 ...

, later Conrail's River Line, and now the

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), Hudson R ...

. A broad public stairway known as the Grauert Causeway met the road at the base of the cliff at a viaduct crossing over a rail

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 ...

. Now abandoned, it has been replaced by a metal stairwell structure which connects to the Port Imperial station. Pershing Road Park along the

Hudson River Waterfront Walkway The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, also known as the Hudson River Walkway, is a promenade along the Hudson Waterfront in New Jersey. The ongoing and incomplete project located on Kill van Kull and the western shore of Upper New York Bay and th ...

is near the foot of the road. The road was proposed as part of the Port Imperial Street Circuit of the Grand Prix of America. The foot of the road is the Hudson Riverfront 9/11 Memorial, Weehawken's memorial to the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

, which was completed in September 2011.

Major intersections

References

{{reflist Weehawken, New Jersey Streets in Hudson County, New Jersey Transportation in Hudson County, New Jersey New Jersey streetcar lines North Hudson, New Jersey Lincoln Highway

Major intersections

See also

References