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The Middlesex Greenway is a
rail trail A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed but may also share the rail corr ...
Metuchen Metuchen ( ) is a suburban borough in Middlesex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The borough is a commuter town of New York City, located in the heart of the Raritan Valley region within the New York Metropolitan area. The borough, alon ...
, Edison and Woodbridge Township in
Middlesex County, New Jersey Middlesex County is a County (United States), county located in the North Jersey, north-Central Jersey, central part of the U.S. state of New Jersey, extending inland from the Raritan River, Raritan Valley region to the northern portion of the ...
. It is part of the
Middlesex County Park System The Middlesex County Park System is an agency that maintains over 32 parks and recreational areas, in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The largest park is Thompson Park in Monroe Township and Jamesburg with 675 acres The acre ...
. It makes up a portion of 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 ...
. The trail begins at Girl Scout Park on William Street in the Fords/ Keasbey section of Woodbridge Township and terminates in Metuchen at Greenway Park on Middlesex Avenue, with 12 entry points. Construction costs were $5 million. Expansion to
Perth Amboy Perth Amboy is a city in northeastern Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, within the New York Metro Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 55,436. Perth Amboy is known as the "City by the Bay", re ...
and South Plainfield has also been proposed.


History

The trail's roadbed originates from the
Easton and Amboy Railroad Easton and Amboy Railroad was a railroad built across central New Jersey by the Lehigh Valley Railroad (LVRR) in the 1870s. The line was built to connect the Lehigh Valley Railroad coal hauling operations in Pennsylvania with the Port of New Yor ...
created by the
Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad in the Northeastern United States built predominantly to haul anthracite, anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Northeastern Pennsylvania to major consumer markets in Philadelphia, New York City, and ...
in 1875 to transport
anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a lustre (mineralogy)#Submetallic lustre, submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy densit ...
coal to a transfer dock in Perth Amboy for subsequent delivery to
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. The line was consolidated into
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 busine ...
with other bankrupt railroads in 1976, and abandoned in 1991. Using open space funds, Middlesex County purchased the roadbed from Conrail in December 2002 for approximately $50,000. In 2004, Edison elected officials challenged
NJDOT 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 ...
's plan to replace an original railroad trestle with a 140-foot-long tunnel-like structure to carry the trail under
U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, ...
. The proposed
culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe (fluid conveyance), pipe, reinforced concrete or other materia ...
would have reduced the trail's capacity to a 14-foot-wide by 10-foot-high passageway, potentially preventing
mounted police Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. Their day-to-day function is typically picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and increasingly in th ...
from traversing the highway. NJDOT eventually agreed to construct a
pedestrian A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, by wheelchair or with other mobility aids. Streets and roads often have a designated footpath for pedestrian traffic, called the '' sidewalk'' in North American English, the ''pavement'' in British En ...
bridge in lieu of the culvert. In 2005 Middlesex County acquired of land adjacent to the trail to build a park along a portion of the abandoned roadbed at a cost of $1.25 million Middlesex County and $100,000 from Metuchen. The trail officially opened in 2012. In 2021, the greenway became a component of the
September 11th National Memorial Trail September 11th National Memorial Trail, also known as the 9/11 Trail, is a network of trails and roadways nearly long connecting the Flight 93 National Memorial, the Pentagon Memorial, and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. It is tribut ...
.


Route description

Beginning at the western trailhead, the trail starts on Middlesex Avenue in Metuchen, and goes through an initial section which goes Southeast, and goes under the North East Corridor tracks. Upon leaving the underpass, the trail turns more eastward, and goes parallel to Memorial Parkway right alongside the Memorial Park, and then goes under Route 27. After crossing Route 27, the trail goes into a below street level section which continues under a footbridge at Graham Avenue, and shortly after goes under Route 531. The Greenway continues through a residential area in Metuchen, before the trail crosses the border into Edison and arrives at Pierson Avenue. The trail then goes over Route 1 on an overpass, which comes down after crossing into the
Clara Barton Clarissa Harlowe Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912) was an American nurse who founded the American Red Cross. She was a hospital nurse in the American Civil War, a teacher, and a patent clerk. Since nursing education was not then very ...
section of Edison. The trail then crosses through Starkin Road, and then crosses Jackson Avenue right next to Herbert Hoover Middle School. The greenway crosses Liddle Avenue, and then goes under the New Jersey Turnpike before arriving at Woodbridge Avenue, which the trail crosses. The trail goes through several more blocks alongside residential homes, before going under King Georges Post Road at the Edison/Woodbridge Border, parallel to Route 440. The greenway goes next to the Hillside Gardens apartments before crossing under Crows Mill Road. The trail ends at the eastern trailhead about a block before the
Garden State Parkway The Garden State Parkway (GSP) is a Controlled-access highway, controlled-access toll road that stretches the north–south length of eastern New Jersey from the state's southernmost tip near Cape May, New Jersey, Cape May north to the New York ...
at Girl Scout Park on East William Street in Woodbridge Township. No railroad infrastructure remains along the Middlesex Greenway route. However, near the eastern trailhead just past where the trail makes a sharp turn towards East William Street, some of the railroad tracks of the Lehigh Valley Railroad can be seen.


Trail heads

* Woodbridge Township, Crows Mill Road, Woodbridge *
Metuchen Metuchen ( ) is a suburban borough in Middlesex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The borough is a commuter town of New York City, located in the heart of the Raritan Valley region within the New York Metropolitan area. The borough, alon ...
, Middlesex Avenue, Metuchen


See also

* Assunpink Trail *
Delaware and Raritan Canal Trail The D&R Canal trail is a recreational trail in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The trail is made up of three segments that traverse three counties: a canal towpath from New Brunswick to Trenton; a canal towpath/rail trail from Trenton to Bull's I ...
*
Henry Hudson Trail The Henry Hudson Trail is a rail trail in western and northern Monmouth County, New Jersey. The trail is named for Henry Hudson, who explored the harbor at Atlantic Highlands and the Raritan Bayshore coastline in the early 1600s. The , paved m ...
*
Lenape Trail The Lenape Trail is a trail through Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, connecting many county parks and reservations, wooded spaces, and historical sites. It begins in Newark, New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey and ends in Millburn, New Jersey, ...
* West Essex Trail


References

{{Rail trails in New Jersey Rail trails in New Jersey Transportation in Middlesex County, New Jersey Metuchen, New Jersey Woodbridge Township, New Jersey Bike paths in New Jersey Greenways