Remembering the Waterfront–25 Years Ago Edgewater to Hoboken–April 22, 1984

Text & Photos by Theodore W. Scull

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1) Ferryboat Binghamton was one of five 1,986-passenger-vehicle ferries built for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in 1905 to ply the Hudson between Hoboken and three Manhattan landings. A few years after the last ferry stopped running on November 22, 1967, the Binghamton opened as a restaurant on the Edgewater waterfront south of the George Washington Bridge. Sadly, it is has been closed for several years.

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2) Looking north from atop the Palisades at Weehawken, the industrial riverfront land once belonged to the New York Central Railroad and was the site of its West Shore Line’s passenger and freight services. A connecting ferry ran over to 42nd Street until 1959 when the commuter line shut down. The high-rise apartment buildings are located in West New York, NJ. To the left is Pershing Road that connects Boulevard East with the waterfront and the single track at the bottom center is an active Conrail freight line. Manhattan Upper West Side and Riverside Park are across the river to the right.

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3) The photo taken to the north of the previous one is looking south along the Hudson to the World Trade Center, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in the far distance and along the Weehawken to Hoboken waterfront. A Conrail freight is passing through the tunnel under the Palisades that leads to the meadowlands. This track is now the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line operated by NJ Transit from North Bergen , Union City and Weehawken south to Hoboken, Jersey City and Bayonne. A light rail station will rise to the left of where the tracks begin to straighten out, but not for about 23 years. The waterfront still has an active barge service but that will soon disappear when NY Waterway commences building a ferry terminal, restaurant and parking lot to resume passenger-only service across to West 38th Street.

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4) The view from the Palisades at Weehawken is across to Manhattan with the Queen Elizabeth 2 berthed at Pier 90, the USS Intrepid to the right at Pier 86 and the Floating Hospital Lila Acheson Wallace to the extreme right. Below is the former New York Central Railroad property and an active barge operation and floating drydock. An empty southbound tanker is midstream.

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5) This view is slightly to the right from the last one and shows the Manhattan waterfront and Weehawken waterfronts more clearly. Directly across would be West 47th-West 48th streets. The QE2 is being fueled and the Moran tug tied at the end of Pier 90 will put a docking pilot aboard and assist the liner when she reverses into the river.

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6) At the north end of Hoboken and the west end of 14th Street, Hoboken Shipyards took over the ship repair and drydock facilities from Bethlehem Steel. The Empire State Building can be seen just to the left of the shipyard crane. Waterfront condominiums now occupy this site and a NY Waterway ferry service operates across to Manhattan.

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7) Queen Elizabeth 2, bound for a transatlantic voyage to Southampton, England, is passing one of the abandoned ferry slips at the Hoboken Terminal.

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8) QE2 is passing the World Trade Center’s twin towers and a new buildings are under construction at the WTC and at what will become the World Financial Center. The Woolworth Building is seen to the left and the ventilation shaft of the Holland Tunnel to the right above the abandoned freight piers on the NJ side.

N.B. The PONY website editors would be grateful if anyone can identify the tanker sailing down the Hudson in Photo 4 and the cargo vessel in the Hoboken Shipyards drydock.