Bergen Arches
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bergen Arches is the common name for the Erie Cut, Erie Railroad's mile-long, four-track cut in Jersey City, New Jersey through the New Jersey Palisades (also known as "Bergen Hill"). The cut linked the Erie's main line to its Hudson River waterfront terminal where travelers to New York City would transfer to ferries or the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad. Using 250,000 pounds of dynamite, workers blasted through 800,000 cubic yards of blue trap rock; 160,000 cubic yards of earth were excavated. There were construction cost overruns which led to financial trouble for the Erie. The term "Bergen Arches" originally referred to the massive bridges over the cut, but the two terms have become synonymous.
It is abandoned, but the adjacent two-track tunnel (the Bergen Tunnel) from the mid-19th century that the Bergen Arches replaced is used for freight (although only one track is usable due to the small clearance of the Tunnel and increased size of modern trains).
A project is underway to consider use of the abandoned track bed for a four-lane or six-lane highway that would connect the New Jersey Turnpike and U.S. Route 1/9 to the New Jersey Hudson River Waterfront, bypassing traffic headed for the Holland Tunnel.
[edit] Map
[edit] External links
- The Bergen Arches: A History - includes several photographs and classic postcards
- Bergen Arches roadway project
- State of New Jersey's study for possible other options for the Arches
- History, summary of road and rail options with an aerial picture of the arches and the nearby highways and railroads
- Google Maps satellite view of the area. The Arches are just southwest of the northwest-southeast Route 139.
- http://www.njcu.edu/programs/jchistory/Pages/B_Pages/Bergen_Arches.htm
