Babbitt, North Bergen

Babbitt, North Bergen
Unincorporated community
Babbitt, North Bergen
Coordinates: 40°48′35″N 74°01′12″W / 40.80972°N 74.02000°W / 40.80972; -74.02000Coordinates: 40°48′35″N 74°01′12″W / 40.80972°N 74.02000°W / 40.80972; -74.02000
Country United States
State New Jersey
County Hudson
Township North Bergen
Elevation[1] 10 ft (3 m)
GNIS feature ID 874439[1]

Babbitt is an unincorporated community within North Bergen Township in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.[2] The area, located west of Tonnelle Avenue within the New Jersey Meadowlands District, is home to light manufacturing, warehouses, transportation facilities, and part of the wetlands preservation area known as the Eastern Brackish Marsh.[3][4]

Babbitt's Best Soap

The name is taken from the company that produced Babbitt's Best Soap, named after its founder, Benjamin T. Babbitt. In 1904 the company purchased a tract of 87 acres (35 ha) between Granton and Faiview,[5] and in 1907 relocated from its former premises, a 22,000 square feet (2,000 m2) facility on West Street in Lower Manhattan.[6] to what was then one of the largest soap manufacturering plants in the world.[7] Sinclair Lewis's novel Babbitt about an industrialist used the surname.[8]

Granton Junction and Babbitt Station

View west to NYSW and Northern Branch at grade crossings and West Shore viaduct
The Northern Branch Corridor passes under CSX River Division at 83rd Street, which is slated for closure if the HBLR extension is built.

The West Shore Railroad, the Erie Railroad's Northern Branch, and the New York, Susquehanna, and Western (NYSW) all passed through the area running parallel to each other.[9] Both Erie and NYSW maintained minor stations[10] nearby 83rd Street, which crossed under the right-of-way of the West Shore. Granton Junction was located just south of the stations and was where NYSW and Erie converged after the latter had also passed under the West Shore.[11][12] For a time Granton was busy railroad junction used by both the Erie and NYSW, which shared track and stations, including the Susquehanna Transfer. The name Granton comes from a former quarry that later was site of an important fossil find of a phytosaur.[13] Joint operations between the Erie and NYSW were controlled by GR Tower, which in 1959 was destroyed by fire, ending the relationship.[14] Originally the soap works were outftted with rail spurs by the NYSW, but by 1909 they had been removed in a renegade action in which factory workers where locked-up and the tracks removed and hauled away.[15] In August 1922, a full Sunday evening Erie train heading south to Pavonia Terminal was struck by bombs thrown at it in what was considered an act of sabotage and an attempt to cause a collision.[16]

CSX and HBLR Northern Branch

The West Shore subsequently became Conrail's River Line, and eventually the CSX River Subdivision which begins to the south at North Bergen Yard. Road access to its Little Ferry Yard is located in Babbitt.

The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail extension into eastern Bergen County known as the Northern Branch Corridor Project calls for the closure of the at-grade crossing at 83rd Street and creation of a new one at 85th Street.[17]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Babbitt". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  2. ↑ Locality Search, State of New Jersey. Accessed February 7, 2015.
  3. ↑ "USGS Map Name:Weehawken, NJ Map MRC: 40074G1". TopoQuest. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  4. ↑ "Eastern Brackish Marsh". New Jersey Meadowlands Commission. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  5. ↑ "To Abandon Down-Town Factory Site". The New York Times. June 12, 1904. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  6. ↑ "Big Downtown Sale". The New York Times. April 17, 2010. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  7. ↑ "In the Real Estate Field: New Babbitt Plant Mortgaged.". The New York Times. November 23, 1907. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  8. ↑ "Find a Grave". Benjamin T. Babbitt. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
  9. ↑ "Appendix H: Historic Properties and Resources" (PDF). Northern Branch Corridor Project DEIS. New Jersey Transit. December 2011. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  10. ↑ "List of Station Names and Numbers". Jersey City, New Jersey: Erie Railroad. May 1, 1916. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  11. ↑ Sheppard, Bill (October 1977). "Granton Junction" (PDF). The Block Line (National Railway Historical Society (Tri-State Chapter)) V (VIII).
  12. ↑ Kaminski, Edward S. (2010), New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway in New Jersey, Arcadia Publishing, p. 9, ISBN 978-0-7385-7367-0
  13. ↑ Colbertz, Edwin (September 10, 1965). "A Phytosaur from North Bergen, New Jersey" (PDF). American Museum Novitates (American Museum of Natural History) (2230). Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  14. ↑ Mohowski, Robert E. (2003), New York Susquehanna and Western, Johns Hopkins University Press
  15. ↑ "Seize Factory Hands Remove Its Track". The New York Times. May 25, 1909. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  16. ↑ "Bombs Strike Two Cars". The New York Times. August 14, 1922. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  17. ↑ "85th Street at Grade Realignment & Closure of 83rd Street" (PDF). Northern Branch Corridor. New Jersey Transit. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
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