Pavonia Ferry

The Pavonia Ferry was a ferry service on the Hudson River, operating between New York City and Jersey City, New Jersey, United States. It was launched in 1854.^[1] It was sold to the Pavonia Ferry Company of Jersey City^[2] for $9,050 (equivalent to $306,896 in 2023) at New York City Hall in February 1854.^[3][4]

Map of the Pavonia Ferry's route across the Hudson River

The Pavonia Ferry's Chambers Street Ferry Terminal at West Street and Chambers Street, 1938

The ferry takes its name for Pavonia, the first European settlement on the west bank of the Hudson first established in 1633 as part of New Netherland and later expanded to region known as Bergen.

In February 1859 Nathaniel Marsh of the Erie Railroad Company purchased the lease on behalf of the Pavonia Ferry Company. He started a ferry which ran from Chambers Street (Manhattan) to the foot of Pavonia Avenue on the other side of the Hudson Waterfront. Legal problems had prevented the Pavonia Ferry Company from establishing a ferry along this route. The New York and Erie Railroad paid an annual rent of $9,050 to transport passengers back and forth.^[5] Eventually the railroad constructed its Pavonia Terminal on the landfilled Harsimus Cove. Suburban and long-distance travellers would transfer from trains to boats for the passage across the river. Service to 23rd Street began in 1869.^[6]

A January 18, 1903 letter from a Passaic, New Jersey reader to The New York Times, commented about the inadequacy of the boats of the Pavonia Ferry, which was then the property of the Erie Railroad. "All their boats are old, small and entirely inadequate to accommodate the crowds during rush hours."^[7] The vessels then in use by the Erie Railroad, listed with first year of service, were: Pavonia (1861), Susquehanna (1865), Delaware (1868), Chatauqua (1868), Passaic (1869), Ridgewood (1873), Paterson (1886), and J.G. McCullough (1891).^[7]

See also

• Timeline of Jersey City area railroads
• Houston, West Street and Pavonia Ferry Railroad
• List of ferries across the Hudson River in New York City

References

1. "Sale Postponed". The New York Times. February 2, 1854. p. 6. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
2. "The Pavonia Ferry Lease Sold At Auction". The New York Times. February 16, 1854. p. 8. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
3. "Corporation Doings". The New York Times. February 24, 1854. p. 4. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
4. "Erie Railroad Terminal". Jersey City Past and Present. Retrieved 2023-02-19.
5. "Aldermen's Committee On Ferries". The New York Times. February 1, 1859. p. 5. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
6. Baxter, Raymond J.; Adams. G. (1999), Railroad Ferries of the Hudson: And Stories of a Deckhand, Arcadia Publishing, ISBN 9780823219544
7. "Pavonia Ferry Service". The New York Times. January 20, 1903. p. 8. Retrieved 2010-05-15.

External links

• Breakwater and Pavonia collision
• photos of Hudson River ferries and terminals