Riverbend is the name of two sections of

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 ...

The smaller Riverbend District () is located in Harrison at a bend in the

Passaic River The Passaic River ( or ) is a river, approximately long, in North Jersey, northern New Jersey. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburb ...

in West Hudson across from Newark Penn Station and is the site of

Sports Illustrated Stadium Sports Illustrated Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium in Harrison, New Jersey, that is home to the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer and Gotham FC of the National Women's Soccer League. It opened under its former name, Red Bull Arena, i ...

. Since the millennium, the southernmost portion of Harrison has seen a major increase in development and population and has gone from being an industrial district on the outskirts of Newark to a transit-oriented residential and commercial neighborhood south west of the PATH Newark Line. The larger Riverbend Section () is on the banks of the

Hackensack River The Hackensack River is a river, about 45 miles (72 km) long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the suburban ar ...

and is part of the

New Jersey Meadowlands District New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

. As its name suggests it lies at a

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the Channel (geography), channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erosion, erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank (cut bank, cut bank or river cl ...

(in this case a "S' curve) in the

between 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 ...

Eastern Spur and where the Belleville Turnpike and the Newark-Jersey City Turnpike converge to cross the Wittpenn Bridge. In the river not far from the mouth of the

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

Penhorn Creek is the point where the municipal borders of

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

Secaucus Secaucus ( ) is a town in Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 22,181, an increase of 5,917 (+36.4%) from the 2010 census count of 16,264, which in turn reflected an in ...

, and Kearny meet. This Riverbend is in many ways typical of the

New Jersey Meadowlands New Jersey Meadowlands, also known as the Hackensack Meadowlands after the Hackensack River, primary river flowing through it, is a general name for a large ecosystem of wetlands in northeastern New Jersey in the United States, a few miles to th ...

, a combination of marshes, industry, and rail infrastructure (namely the

Northeast Corridor Line The Northeast Corridor Line is a commuter rail service operated by NJ Transit between the Trenton Transit Center and New York Penn Station on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor in the United States. The service is the successor to Pennsylvania Railroad ...

as it approaches

Secaucus Junction Secaucus Junction (signed as Secaucus) is an intermodal transit hub served by New Jersey Transit Rail Operations, New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) and Metro-North Railroad in Secaucus, New Jersey, Secaucus, New Jersey. It is one of the List of b ...

). The northern boundary is the unused rail right-of-way for the former Boonton Line. To the northwest are Snake Hill, site of Hudson County Laurel Hill Park, Anderson Marsh, and Harmon Cove. The central part of the area is the Riverbend Wetlands Preserve, one of several

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

preservation and restoration areas under the jurisdiction on the

New Jersey Meadowlands Commission The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC; formerly the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission) was a regional zoning, planning and regulatory agency in northern New Jersey. Its founding mandates were to protect the delicate balance of ...

. Currently the area has limited public access, but may eventually connect with trails to the park and the Secaucus Greenway portion of the Hackensack River Greenway. and the Essex–Hudson Greenway. To the southeast are the Croxton Yard, and the Hudson Generating Station, the PATH Newark Line, and

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. It ...

Hoboken Terminal-bound trains. The Kearny Meadows border the river to the southwest.

References

{{Jersey City Neighborhoods Geography of Jersey City, New Jersey Neighborhoods in Hudson County, New Jersey New Jersey Meadowlands District Protected areas of Hudson County, New Jersey Harrison, New Jersey Secaucus, New Jersey