Bergen Arches

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The Bergen Arches.
The Bergen Arches.

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 and Manhattan Railroad. From 1906 to 1910, using 250,000 pounds of dynamite, workers blasted through 800,000 cubic yards (610,000 m³) of blue trap rock; 160,000 cubic yards (120,000 m³) 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 Long Dock 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

A map of the current active railroads of northern Hudson County. The Bergen Arches are not shown, but they are immediately adjacent to the Bergen Tunnel which is the part blue line marked "Conrail National Docks Branch" which runs between the tunnel portal just east of the West End Junction (bottom center) and the tunnel portal just west of the connection with the Conrail River Line stub.
A map of the current active railroads of northern Hudson County. The Bergen Arches are not shown, but they are immediately adjacent to the Bergen Tunnel which is the part blue line marked "Conrail National Docks Branch" which runs between the tunnel portal just east of the West End Junction (bottom center) and the tunnel portal just west of the connection with the Conrail River Line stub.

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