The Newburgh–Beacon Ferry was a ferry service crossing the

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 ...

that connected Newburgh with

Beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

in the U.S. state of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. It carried passengers between the two cities during

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English, Indian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice e ...

, primarily transporting

commuter Commuting is periodically recurring travel between a place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community. By extension, it can sometimes be any regular o ...

s from the west side of the river at Newburgh to the commuter train station on the east side at Beacon where they could catch Metro-North Hudson Line service to

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...

and other points in

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 ...

NY Waterway NY Waterway, or New York Waterway, is a private transportation company running ferry and bus service in the Port of New York and New Jersey and in the Hudson Valley. The company utilizes public-private partnership with agencies such as the Por ...

operated the ferry under contract from the

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a New York state public benefit corporations, public benefit corporation in New York (state), New York State responsible for public transportation in the New York metropolitan area, New York Ci ...

(MTA); it still operates the Haverstraw–Ossining Ferry downstream. Service began in 2005 after the Newburgh–Beacon Bridge had, 42 years earlier, rendered over two centuries of ferry service obsolete. The Beacon terminal was at a dock immediately adjacent to the station; the Newburgh terminal was at the south end of Front Street. The fare was $1.75 per person and the trip across the river takes approximately ten minutes. The ferry was suspended and replaced with buses in January 2025, and the MTA announced in July 2025 that service would be discontinued permanently.

History

Tradition has it that Native Americans regularly crossed the Hudson River at the point between what is now Beacon and Newburgh, long before Europeans arrived in America. In 1743, a formal ferry was established when Alexander Colden received a royal charter from King George II to carry passengers and goods for profit. The right to operate ferries between Beacon and Newburgh was bestowed upon the Ramsdell family by the heirs of Alexander Colden. They ran the ferry through the Steamboat Era until 1956, when NYSBA took over ferry services.

Before the bridge

By the early 20th century the fleet had grown to three 160-foot (49 m) coal-fired ferries, the ''Orange'', ''Dutchess'' and ''Beacon'', capable of carrying 30 vehicles each.Newburgh-Beacon Bridge: Historic Overview
at nycroads.com, retrieved March 29, 2006. It linked the two segments of

NY 52 New York State Route 52 (NY 52) is a state highway in the southeastern part of the state. It generally runs from west to east through five counties, beginning at the New York–Pennsylvania border, Pennsylvania state line in the Dela ...

, the major east-west artery at that point. In the winter, ice was sometimes a problem. In the 1950s, one of the ferries got stuck in the ice. In fact, the NYSBA opened the Kingston bridge ahead of schedule because river ice was keeping the ferry in dock and people couldn't get to work. Similarly, people stalled on the Newburgh-Beacon ferry, en route to work at Nabisco, Texaco or the state prisons, had difficulty getting to work whenever ice trapped their boat and they had to wait for another one to clear a path to shore. If the ice was thick enough and solid enough, they simply walked — by the hundreds — back and forth.

Bridge opening and service discontinuation

The impetus for a bridge began with the opening in 1916 of

Bear Mountain State Park Bear Mountain State Park is a state park located on the west bank of the Hudson River in Rockland County, New York, Rockland and Orange County, New York, Orange counties, New York (state), New York. The park offers biking, hiking, boating, pic ...

. To improve access to the popular attraction, in 1924, the

Bear Mountain Bridge The Bear Mountain Bridge, ceremonially named the Purple Heart Veterans Memorial Bridge, is a toll suspension bridge in New York State. It carries U.S. Route 6 in New York, US 6 and U.S. Route 202 in New York, US 202 across the Hudso ...

opened--the first vehicular/pedestrian (non-railroad) bridge over the Hudson between New York City and Albany--and the ferry at Bear Mountain was discontinued. The ferries were seen as past their day, due to their mounting financial and operational problems, even before the construction of the Newburgh-Beacon bridge. Increasing traffic on 52 by mid-century, coupled with the building of the

New York State Thruway The New York State Thruway (officially the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway and colloquially "the Thruway") is a system of controlled-access toll roads spanning within the U.S. state of New York. It is operated by the New York State Thruway ...

in the Hudson corridor, was straining the ferry beyond its breaking point. The state's Department of Public Works began planning for a bridge, but it was not a serious possibility until federal money became available through the construction of Interstate 84. The last Hudson crossing to be built on the river's

estuarine An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

section below Albany was completed and opened to traffic on November 2, 1963. By that time the

New York State Bridge Authority The New York State Bridge Authority (NYSBA) is a public benefit corporation in New York State, United States. The NYSBA was born out of the necessity to build a bridge over the Hudson River to link the city of Hudson and the village of Catski ...

had already had to take them over. The next day, the ''Orange'' and ''Dutchess'' saluted each other midriver on their 5 p.m. runs.End of the Newburgh ferry

; retrieved March 29, 2006 The Orange and the Dutchess sailed from Newburgh for the last time on November 3, 1963, packed with people and cars. The bells on board and on shore tolled as the boats crossed the river in the early evening chill against the imposing silhouette of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, which had opened the day before. Ten minutes later, when the ferries docked in Beacon and disgorged their cargo, people got in their cars or hopped on the waiting buses and went home, over the new bridge. The ferries, built in the early 1900s at the Newburgh shipyards, were sold. The ''Dutchess'' and ''Beacon'', both in very decrepit condition, were sold as scrap. The ''Orange'', in slightly better shape, was purchased and refurbished by Myles Rosenthal with the intent of turning it into a

floating restaurant A floating restaurant is a vessel, usually a large steel barge or Hulk (ship type), hulk, used as a restaurant on water. The ''Jumbo Kingdom'', formerly located at Aberdeen, Hong Kong, Aberdeen in Hong Kong, was at one time the world's largest ...

. It also was to carry visitors from

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 ...

to the

1964 New York World's Fair The 1964 New York World's Fair (also known as the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair) was an world's fair, international exposition at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. The fair included exhibitions, activ ...

. After only a few charter trips the boat fell victim to vandals, which led to it joining its sister vessels in oblivion later that year. In the next decade, when the new bridge was stretched to capacity, the bridge was widened and a second span built. The end of ferry service resulted in decreased activity on Newburgh's once-vibrant waterfront, and in the early 1970s

urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...

led to much of the land being cleared in preparation for new construction projects that never came to fruition.

Revival

Increasing regional growth in the 1990s led to frequent

traffic jam Traffic congestion is a condition in transport that is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. Traffic congestion on urban road networks has increased substantially since the 1950s, resulting in m ...

s on the bridge and swamped parking lots at the train station. Interest grew in reviving ferry service, especially after the

(MTA)'s successful 2000 restoration of the Haverstraw–Ossining Ferry across a similarly-wide portion of the river further south. However, plans never quite seemed to materialize despite considerable appropriations of money, and in the interim commuters had to be content with a

shuttle bus A shuttle bus is a bus that travels a shorter route in comparison to most bus routes. Typically, shuttle buses travel in both directions between two points. Shuttle buses are designed to transport large groups of people who are all travelling ...

across the bridge from the

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail transport, r ...

lot on NY 17K near its connection to the

. Meanwhile, MTA began for the first time to require parking permits at Beacon, and the waiting list swelled to at least 600 more than capacity, even after the lots were enlarged in the early 2000s. Governor Announces Beginning Of New Newburgh-Beacon Ferry Service
press release from Governor's office, retrieved March 30, 2006 Eventually, it was able, with the help of the region's congressional delegation, to secure a $1.1 million grant from the

Federal Transit Administration The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transportation systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administration ...

to close the gap between fares and costs, along with other subsidies. Service resumed on October 17, 2005. To encourage use of the new ferry, no fares were charged for the remainder of that month. The ferry achieved its maximum ridership in 2008, when 227 people rode the ferry on an average day, but ridership began to decline afterward. The ferry ceased operations from April 2020 through August 29, 2021 due to the

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

reduction in MTA services. On May 10, 2024, the MTA announced that it would implement a pilot program on June 30, 2024 to lower the cost of the monthly UniTicket by 93 percent from $14.50 to $1. Despite this, ridership continued to decline, with only 62 daily passengers by January 2025. Starting in January 2025, the ferry was replaced with bus service due to damage to the Beacon landing. In July 2025, the MTA discontinued the ferry permanently, saying the move would save $2.1 million annually. The bus service continued to operate, charging the same $1.75 fare as the ferry. In response, local residents and U.S. representative Pat Ryan asked the MTA to restore ferry service.

Fleet

The MTA moved the ''West New York'', a boat which had been used to evacuate

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

after the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, to Newburgh Bay to inaugurate its new service. It carried 149 passengers. One major problem the MTA and NY Waterway had to overcome in planning was the

ice floe An ice floe () is a segment of floating ice defined as a flat piece at least across at its widest point, and up to more than across. Drift ice is a floating field of sea ice composed of several ice floes. They may cause ice jams on freshwate ...

s that can sometimes clog the shallows near the riverbanks, particularly on the Newburgh side, in cold weather. This situation is not encountered by its ferries downriver as the

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt (chemistry), salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensio ...

of the river below the

Hudson Highlands The Hudson Highlands are mountains on both sides of the Hudson River in New York (state), New York state lying primarily in Putnam County, New York, Putnam County on its east bank and Orange County, New York, Orange County on its west. They conti ...

is high enough to prevent ice from forming in all but the coldest temperatures. However, while Newburgh Bay is below the river's salt front, ice from the freshwater sections often accumulates in it. Newburgh-Beacon_ferry

The ''West New York'' was ultimately fitted with a strengthened

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

and a closed cooling system to protect it. The vessel was also repainted with the ''"FerryRailLink"'' logo. The winter following the ferry's reintroduction was rather mild and the first ice-free winter on the Hudson in a long time, as was the first half of the following winter. On February 6, 2007, however, a

cold snap A cold wave (known in some regions as a cold snap, cold spell or Arctic Snap) is a weather phenomenon that is distinguished by a cooling of the air. Specifically, as used by the U.S. National Weather Service, a cold wave is a rapid fall in temp ...

had left enough ice at each bank that the MTA decided to do as it had done with the downriver

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

the day before and suspend service until conditions improved, renting buses to take commuters across the bridge in the meantime. Service was finally restored at the end of the month when a warming trend melted enough ice. , the ''Captain Mark Summers'' had replaced the ''West New York'' on the route.

Fares and schedule

A one-way ferry trip cost $1.75 per person. It could be paid at Newburgh and during the AM Rush only at Beacon or on board. The MTA, as is its practice, not only sold train tickets at the ferry terminals but encouraged riders to buy them there. For regular riders, a UniTicket package combining train and ferry fare for a month was available for $447.50. UniTicket purchasers were also covered by MTA's Guaranteed Ride Home program, whereby if the ferry is unable to operate they would be able to get a

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

to take them home or to their cars. As of October 2024 there were seven ferry crossing during the AM peak hours and eight crossings during the PM peak. There were no crossings on weekends.

Ridership

;Notes

References

External links

MTA ferry page, with fare and schedule informationvideo of the Newburgh - Beacon Ferry taken in the 1920s
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newburgh-Beacon Ferry Ferries of New York (state) Crossings of the Hudson River Transportation in Orange County, New York Transportation in Dutchess County, New York Newburgh, New York Beacon, New York