Exchange Place station (Pennsylvania Railroad)

{{Short description|Former intermodal terminal in Jersey City (closed 1961)}}

{{Infobox station

| name = Jersey City

| native_name =

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| style = Pennsylvania Railroad

| image = (King1893NYC) pg123 PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD, JERSEY-CITY STATION.jpg

| alt = sketch of vast station building and feryy operation

| caption = Pennsylvania Railroad's Jersey City Station, 1893

| address =

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| coordinates = {{coord|40.71648|N|74.03238|W|display=inline,title}}

| owned =

| operator = Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR)

| line =

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| platforms =

| tracks =

| train_operators =

| connections = {{rint|us|rail}} {{rint|ferry}}

| structure =

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| opened = {{Start date|1834}}

| closed = {{End date|1961}}

| passengers =

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| services =

| other_services_header = Former services

| other_services = {{Adjacent stations|system1=Pennsylvania Railroad

|line1=Jersey City Ferry|right1=Cortlandt Street

|line2=main|left2=Manhattan Transfer|note-left2={{efn|name=MT|Manhattan Transfer was closed 1937; previous station post-1937 is Newark Penn Station}}

|line3=New Brunswick Line|left3=Marion

|system4=Lehigh Valley Railroad

|line4=Main Line|left4=Manhattan Transfer|note-mid4=Until 1913

}}

The Pennsylvania Railroad Station was the intermodal passenger terminal for the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) vast holdings on the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey. By the 1920s the station was called Exchange Place. The rail terminal and its ferry slips were the main New York City station for the railroad until the opening in 1910 of New York Pennsylvania Station, made possible by the construction of the North River Tunnels. It was one of the busiest stations in the world for much of the 19th century.

The terminal was on Paulus Hook, which in 1812 became the landing of the first steam ferry service in the world, and to which rail service began in 1834. Train service to the station ended in November 1961 and demolition of the complex was completed in 1963. Part of the former terminal complex is now the PATH system's Exchange Place Station while the Harborside Financial Center was built upon part of the old site.

The station was one of five passenger railroad terminals on the western shore of the Hudson River during the 19th and 20th centuries, the others being Weehawken, Hoboken, Pavonia, and Communipaw, with Hoboken being the only station still in use.

The PRR referred to the location simply as "Jersey City," and if necessary to distinguish it from other railroads' terminals, as the Pennsylvania station.

History

{{NJ Hudson River terminals|exchange-place=y|width=300px|float=left}}

As early as July 1764History of the County of Hudson, New Jersey: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Charles Hardenburg Winfield, pg. 243-246, Kennard & Hay Stationery M'fg and Print. Company, 1874 a ferry began operating from Paulus Hook to the foot of Courtland Street (where Cortland Street Ferry Depot would be built).Railroad Ferries of the Hudson: And Stories of a Deckhand, by, Raymond J. Baxter, Arthur G. Adams, pg. 64 ,1999, Fordham University Press, 978-0823219544 The first steam ferry service in the world began between Paulus Hook and Manhattan in 1812,

{{cite book |title=Over and Back: The History of Ferryboats in New York Harbor |last=Cudahy |first=Brian J. |year=1990 |publisher=Fordham University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-8232-1245-9 |pages=20–24, 360, 362 }} and the New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company opened a rail line from Newark to Paulus Hook, then part of the newly incorporated City of Jersey, in 1834.[http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1834%20June%2004.wd.pdf "PRR Chronology, 1834."] June 2004 Edition. The PRR acquired the railroad in 1871 and replaced the terminal in 1876 and yet again in 1888-1892.{{cite book |title=The Port of New York. A History of the Rail and Terminal System from the Beginnings to Pennsylvania Station (Volume 1) |last=Condit |first=Carl |year=1980 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-11460-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/portofnewyork0000cond/page/46 46–52,152–168] |url=https://archive.org/details/portofnewyork0000cond/page/46 }} Competition along the Northeast Corridor between New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, principally between the PRR and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was fierce. These railroads both used terminals in Jersey City, there being no tunnels or bridges to Manhattan, and for much of the 19th century, Exchange Place was one of the busiest rail stations in the world.

At Exchange Place passengers could move between the trains and ferries without going outside, and crossed the river on the Jersey City Ferry to Cortland Street Ferry Depot in lower Manhattan, to 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan or via the Desbrosses Street Ferry which connected to the Metropolitan Crosstown Line and the Ninth Avenue Elevated at Desbrosses St.{{cite book |title=Over and Back: The History of Ferryboats in New York Harbor |last=Cudahy |first=Brian J. |year=1990 |publisher=Fordham University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-8232-1245-9 |pages=72 }} Another ferry to the Fulton Ferry slip in Brooklyn also existed.[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_map_of_New_York_City_-_from_the_latest_surveys_showing_all_the_ferries_and_steamship_docks,_elevated,_cable,_and_cross_town_car_lines_LOC_2003630444.jpg New map of New York City - from the latest surveys showing all the ferries and steamship docks, elevated, cable, and cross town car lines -- 1890 (Brooks Bank Note Co.; Broadway Central Hotel; New York, N.Y.)]

In the 1870s the PRR began exploring ways to reach New York directly (see New York Tunnel Extension). A number of realignments produced a straighter track, with the final realignment, a new passenger line from Harrison to east of the new bridge (now the PATH Lift Bridge) over the Hackensack River, opening in 1900.[http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1900%20Mar%2005.pdf "PRR Chronology, 1900."] March 2005 Edition. (The old freight line still exists as part of the Passaic and Harsimus Line.)

In 1910 the PRR opened New York Penn Station in Manhattan. The new station used the North River Tunnels under the Hudson River to reach New York City, enabling direct rail access to New York City from the south for the first time. Penn Station's opening led to sharply reduced PRR traffic at Exchange Place. On October 1, 1911 the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, a rapid transit system (now called Port Authority Trans Hudson or PATH), began running over the PRR line west of Waldo Yard, connecting with the new Manhattan Transfer station at Harrison.[http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1911%20Mar%2005.pdf "PRR Chronology, 1911."] March 2005 Edition. The Lehigh Valley Railroad, which had operated its Black Diamond train from Buffalo, New York since 1896, ended service to Exchange Place in 1913.{{cite journal |year=1907 |title=The 'Black Diamond' on the Lehigh |journal=Railway and Locomotive Engineering |volume=20 |issue=12 |pages=525 |publisher=Angus Sinclair Co. |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KP1KAAAAYAAJ&q=black+diamond+lehigh+valley&pg=PA525 }} Ferry service at Exchange Place ended in 1949. The last PRR passenger train used the branch on November 17, 1961.[http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1961%20June%2004.wd.pdf "PRR Chronology, 1961."] June 2004 Edition.{{cite web | title=JERSEY CITY DEPOT CLOSED BY PENNSY; Trains to Exchange Plac Will Now Come Here | website=The New York Times | date=November 18, 1961 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1961/11/18/archives/jersey-city-depot-closed-by-pennsy-trains-to-exchange-plac-will-now.html | access-date=May 26, 2018}} The PATH continues to use the line through Bergen Hill to the Journal Square Transportation Center and onward to Newark Penn Station.

The Exchange Place terminal fell into disuse.{{Cudahy-Hudson|page=54}} The last of the buildings of the complex, along with the elevated portion of the rail line, were demolished in 1963.[http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1963%20June%2004.wd.pdf "PRR Chronology, 1963."] June 2004 Edition. The former terminal complex is now split between the PATH system's Exchange Place station and the Harborside Financial Center, while the ferry slips have been replaced with J. Owen Grundy Waterfront Park. Hudson-Bergen Light Rail maintains two stations in the district while ferries are now served by the Paulus Hook Ferry Terminal. The trestle carrying PRR tracks above what is now Christopher Columbus Drive between Exchange Place and Waldo Yard was removed.

File:ExchangePlacePRRDepotColgateClock1920s.tiff|View from the Hudson, 1920s

File:PRR(1893) Railroad Lines NEW YORK, HARBOUR.jpg|PRR route to the terminal

File:(King1893NYC) pg124 PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD DEPOT, JERSEY CITY, INTERIOR OF TRAIN-HOUSE.jpg|The interior of the station's train house

File:PATH original plan.png|The original Hudson and Manhattan Railroad plan. Local usage eventually led both the terminal and the H&M station to be known as Exchange Place

File:PRR Embankment-Waldo Yard-Exchange Place line, Jersey City at Columbus (Railroad Ave).jpg|Elevated trestle along ROW met embankment at Waldo Yard

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20040814221758/http://www.njcu.edu/programs/jchistory/Pages/E_Pages/Exchange_Place.htm Exchange Place] - "Jersey City: Past and Present" (New Jersey City University)
{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20030126220627/http://hudsoncity.net/tubesgerman/prrstation-_jerseycitycolorcropped.jpg Photo of depot as seen from the Hudson River]}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090523092253/http://www.jclandmarks.org/nomination-embankment.shtml Jersey City Landmarks Committee: Harsimus Branch Embankment and Pennsylvania Main Stem Elevated]
[https://archive.today/20130208162825/http://kc.pennsyrr.com/photos/images/pc_jerseycity2.jpg Photo of Exchange Place facing terminal and ferry slips, c. 1905]
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Pennsylvania_RR_1899.jpg PRR system map 1899]
[https://books.google.com/books?id=LkXXZfRFRM0C&pg=PA116 Travellers description of cut 1800s]
[http://railroadpostcards.blogspot.com/2015/10/pennsylvania-railroad-ferries-jersey.html Pennsylvania Railroad Ferries, Jersey City, New Jersey (National Railroad Postcard Museum; Thursday, October 15, 2015)]
[http://www.worldshipny.com/elferry.shtml "November 1967 ~ The End of Trans-Cross Hudson Ferry Service, by Theodore W. Scull (World Ship Society)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190113062950/http://www.worldshipny.com/elferry.shtml |date=2019-01-13 }}