Bergen Arches is an abandoned railroad

right of way A right of way (also right-of-way) is a specific route that people, animals, vehicles, watercraft, or utility lines travel, or the legal status that gives them the right to do so. Rights-of-way in the physical sense include controlled-access h ...

through Bergen Hill (the lower

New Jersey 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 ...

) in

Jersey City Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

History

Bergen Arches is the common name for the Erie Cut, the

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Northeastern United States, originally connecting Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, with Lake Erie at Dunkirk, New York. The railroad expanded west to Chicago following its 1865 ...

's mile-long, four-track cut which linked the railroad's main line to its

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

waterfront

Pavonia Terminal Pavonia Terminal was the Erie Railroad terminal station, terminal on the North River (Hudson River), Hudson River located in the Harsimus section of Jersey City, New Jersey. The station opened in 1861 and closed in 1958 when the Erie Railroad ...

, where travelers to

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

could transfer to the Pavonia Ferry or the

Hudson and Manhattan Railroad The 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 owne ...

. From 1906 to 1910, using 250,000 pounds of dynamite, workers blasted through of blue trap rock; of earth were excavated. There were construction cost overruns (and settlements paid to local homeowners for damage and injuries from flying rock), with a total cost around $5 million, that led to financial trouble for the Erie and the cancellation of plans to build a new terminal along the Jersey City waterfront. The term "Bergen Arches" originally referred to the massive bridges over the cut, but the two terms have become synonymous. The last trains to the terminal ran in 1957. The line was abandoned that year. The adjacent tunnel (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 thro ...

) from the mid-19th century that the Erie Cut replaced is used for freight, and is being restored as part of Liberty Corridor Project as an extension of

National Docks Secondary National Docks Secondary is a freight rail transport, freight rail line within Conrail's North Jersey Shared Assets Area in Hudson County, New Jersey, used by CSX Transportation. It provides access for the national rail network to maritime, in ...

line.

Future

Various projects have been proposed for the abandoned track bed: for a four-lane or six-lane highway that would connect the

New Jersey Turnpike The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highway, controlled-access toll roads in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although ma ...

and U.S. Route 1/9 bypassing traffic headed along

New Jersey Route 139 Route 139 is a state highway in Jersey City, New Jersey in the United States that heads east from the Pulaski Skyway over Tonnele Circle to the state line with New Jersey and New York (state), New York in the Holland Tunnel, which is under the Hu ...

for the

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

, extension of the Hudson Bergen Light Rail, or in conjunction with the Harsimus Stem Embankment, a recreational greenway. A freeway proposed in 1989 by Governor

Thomas Kean Thomas Howard Kean ( ; born April 21, 1935) is an American politician, statesman, and academic administrator from the state of New Jersey. A Republican Party (United States), Republican, Kean served two terms as the 48th governor of New Jersey f ...

was strongly supported by then-Mayor

Bret Schundler Bret Davis Schundler (born January 14, 1959) is an American politician from New Jersey who served as the 42nd mayor of Jersey City from 1992 to 2001. He remains the last Republican to hold that office. He also unsuccessfully ran for Governor of ...

. In 1998, this project was allocated $26 million in the federal

Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century The United States federal Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) is a federal transportation bill enacted June 9, 1998, as and . TEA-21 authorized federal surface transportation programs for highways, highway safety, and trans ...

. During the 2001 mayoral race, candidates instead lobbied for a mass transit line, and in 2002 the plans were dropped during Mayor Cunningham's administration. In that year,

Parsons Brinckerhoff WSP USA, formerly Parsons Brinckerhoff, is an American multinational engineering and design firm. The firm operates in the fields of strategic consulting, planning, engineering, construction management, energy, infrastructure and community plann ...

, a consulting firm, released another report commissioned by

New Jersey Department of Transportation The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transport ...

(NJDOT) and describing the conditions and analyzing of various options. NJDOT has continued to fund studies for the project. In March 2011, an additional $13.4 million was allocated to advance the project. A Bergen Arches Preservation Coalition has proposed to run the

East Coast Greenway The East Coast Greenway is a pedestrian and bicycle route between Maine and Florida along the East Coast of the United States. The nonprofit East Coast Greenway Alliance was created in 1991 with the goal to use the entire route with off-road, s ...

through the Arches.

References

External links

The Bergen Arches: A History - includes several photographs and classic postcards
* *
State of New Jersey's study for possible other options for the ArchesHistory, summary of road and rail options with an aerial picture of the arches and the nearby highways and railroads
*https://web.archive.org/web/20120929064726/http://www.njcu.edu/Programs/jchistory/Pages/B_Pages/Bergen_Arches.htm *https://www.nj.com/news/2019/12/abandoned-rail-line-is-a-strange-urban-paradise-and-some-want-to-keep-it-that-way.html *https://www.nj.com/hudson/2020/07/bergen-arches-preservation-coalition-joins-forces-with-high-line-network.html {{coord, 40.7369, -74.0594, type:landmark_region:US, display=title Transportation in Jersey City, New Jersey Geography of Hudson County, New Jersey Historic American Engineering Record in New Jersey Historic districts in Hudson County, New Jersey Erie Railroad Landforms of Hudson County, New Jersey Railroad tunnels in New Jersey Erie Railroad tunnels Tunnels in Hudson County, New Jersey

History

Future

See also

References

External links