East Coast Greenway Endorses the Pennsylvania Harsimus Stem Embankment as part of the Spine Route of the East Coast Greenway through Northern New Jersey
Preservation
Coalition
For details on the Greenway in Northern New Jersey and how the Embankment fits into it please read the following excerpts from the ECGA NEWS ONLINE #8 from November 2003:
NEW JERSEY
A great deal of planning has been going on in NJ regarding the route of the ECG in the northern part of the state, and the link to NYC. To describe what's been happening, we offer a report from Beth Brody, Chair of the NJ Committee for the ECG:
"New Jersey boasts the first-ever trail segment designated as part of the ECG, in 1996 - the Delaware & Raritan Canal towpath, stretching 28 miles from Trenton, on the Delaware River, north to South Bound Brook, on the Raritan River.
"The challenge has been to find a route going from South Bound Brook north and east to New York State.”
"Just a year ago, ECGA officials persuaded NJ DOT to fund a study of a more northerly route. The study, undertaken by The RBA Group, planning consultants, began in Feb. 2003.”
"The result is a proposed route, 54 miles in length, going north from the Raritan River to Newark, then east across the Meadowlands to Jersey City, where users can take a Hudson River ferry to Manhattan. As ECGA Executive Director Karen Votava noted, a largely off-road route through this four-county area, once a dubious concept, now seems feasible.
"In New Jersey, the total length of the route is 82 miles; of that, an estimated 70 miles is potentially off-road. Although a few sections of the off-road trail may require long-term (10-20 year) implementation, many sections are either in use today or could be completed within the next five years."
Ferry service between Jersey City and downtown Manhattan is currently the only way to travel the ECG between these states (while the Bayonne Bridge and the George Washington Bridge are both bike-ped friendly, they are not on the ECG route). Specifics of the route from South Bound Brook to NYC via Jersey City and Newark will be posted on greenway.org when they are available.
The North Jersey route of the ECG will certainly course through Jersey City, using two historic railroad rights-of-way: the Pennsylvania Railroad Harsimus Stem Embankment (or simply "Embankment" for those in-the-know), and the Bergen Arches. We have these descriptions from Maureen Crowley, an active member of the ECGA and Jersey City historic preservation activist:
"The Harsimus Stem Embankment, a massive elevated stone structure that runs for a half mile through downtown Jersey City, is part of the recently endorsed ECGA spine route through northern New Jersey. Built one hundred years ago by the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Embankment carried seven freight tracks through a residential neighborhood to the Hudson River waterfront, Harsimus Yards, and warehouse district. The trains ran 24/7, bringing coal, cattle and other goods to the rail-dominated waterfront, where they were loaded onto barges for New York City and destinations beyond. Today, its trestles removed, the Embankment is returning to nature. The Embankment Preservation Coalition has secured historic protections for the Embankment at the municipal, state, and federal levels and is now working to have it acquired by the City. The Coalition plan is to develop the top as a nature sanctuary and as a segment of the East Coast Greenway - an alternative mode of transportation more suited to the quiet National Historic Districts through which the Embankment runs. More information, including photographs, can be found at http://www.embankment.org.
"A hop, skip, and jump from the Harsimus Stem Embankment - just feet from heavily traveled US Rtes 1&9 and the Jersey Turnpike - lies the Erie Cut, a mile-long, 85-foot deep railroad pass cut through Palisades rock and punctuated by huge bridges (the Bergen Arches) that support city streets overhead. On November 16, ECGA members joined Embankment Preservation Coalition members and other adventure travelers to scout out the cut, a future segment of the East Coast Greenway. Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy member and photographer Leon Yost led the charge into this world unto itself. At the end of the Arches, the party of 30 turned back before winter set in, except for intrepid NJ Chair Beth Brody and inveterate trail walker Al Kent. They followed Mike Selender, who has documented every step of this historic rail-trail through northern New Jersey to the Hackensack River. There are plans afoot to walk the segment from Newark to the Hackensack River in the spring. For more on the Bergen Arches (including great photos, both historic and current) and other historic Jersey City sites, visit http://www.jclandmarks.org."
Further south, part of the route will be on the Middlesex Greenway, in Middlesex County. An update from Walter Stochel of the Middlesex Greenway Coalition:
"Middlesex County has begun the design phase of the Middlesex Greenway by creating a first draft of a design, and asking the three relevant municipalities and the Middlesex Greenway Coalition to each designate a representative for this effort. Metuchen has asked John Wiley to be the Borough's representative, Edison will be represented by planner Guy Gaspari, and the Middlesex Greenway Coalition will be represented by Robert Takash. No word yet on who will represent Woodbridge." For more on the Middlesex Greenway, visit
http://www.edisongreenways.org.
Of course, there are already 28 miles of designated East Coast Greenway in New Jersey - the D&R Canal Towpath, very popular with walkers, bicyclists and equestrians (learn more at http://www.dandrcanal.com), between South Bound Brook and Trenton. The trail recently got a bit better, as a bike-ped bridge over US Rt 1 was completed in Lawrenceville (near the southern end of the trail). This single-span steel truss bridge closed one of the last impediments to the D&R Canal Trail along its route from New Brunswick to Trenton's Delaware River shore.