The Jersey City and Bergen Point Plank Road was a road originally built in the 19th century in

Hudson County, New Jersey Hudson County is a county in the U.S. state of New Jersey, its smallest and most densely populated. Lying in the northeast of the state and on the west bank of the Hudson River, the North Jersey county is part of the state's Gateway Region an ...

, United States which ran between Paulus Hook and Bergen Point. The company that built the road received a charter on March 6, 1850 to improve one that had been built in the 18th century. It has subsequently become Grand Street and Garfield Avenue in

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

and Broadway in

Bayonne Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...

Plank road A plank road is a road composed of Plank (wood), wooden planks or wikt:puncheon#Noun, puncheon logs, as an efficient technology for traversing soft, marshy, or otherwise difficult ground. Plank roads have been built since antiquity, and were comm ...

s were built during the 19th century, often by private companies as turnpike roads, in this case with a tollgate at Communipaw Junction. As the name suggests, wooden boards were laid on a roadbed in order to prevent horse-drawn carriages and wagons from sinking into softer ground on the portions of the road. The road traveled from the waterfront of

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 Gateway Region, northeastern New Jersey in the United States. History Name In the early 17th century, the entire wat ...

at Paulus Hook to Communipaw Junction, where a toll was collected. It then ran parallel to the

Morris Canal The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a toll road, common carrier Anthracite, anthracite coal canal across North Jersey, northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals in Easton, Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from its weste ...

through Greenville to Curries Woods.,Greenville
/ref> passing through Bayview – New York Bay Cemetery. Crossing the canal at Pamrapo, it proceeded south into Saltersville and Centerville ending at Bergen Point. Transfer to ferries to Elizabethport across

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 Jerse ...

and to

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

across

Kill van Kull __NOTOC__ The Kill Van Kull is a tidal strait between Staten Island, New York (state), New York, and Bayonne, New Jersey, Bayonne, New Jersey, in the United States. It is approximately long and wide and connects Newark Bay with Upper New York ...

were possible.

References

{{Coord, 40.717119, -74.061574, format=dms, display=title History of New Jersey Streets in Hudson County, New Jersey Roads in New Jersey Transportation in Hudson County, New Jersey Bayonne, New Jersey Turnpikes in New Jersey Plank road Historic trails and roads in New Jersey

See also

References