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Old 03-17-2016, 03:45 PM
 
343 posts, read 611,015 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by qrysdonnell View Post
The past always seems rosy, but things didn't necessarily go any more smoothly back then.

Planned 1887. Construction stopped in 1880 after 20+ deaths due to questionable engineering choices. Restarted in 1890, but then funding ran out. Restarted again in 1900. First train runs in 1907. System completed (33rd st/Newark terminals) 1911.

So finished 24 years from the start. Estimated adjusted cost is $1.5 billion ($60 million at the time).
That's a resounding successful project by today's standard - it got built. Look at the arc tunnel, $1.2 billion wasted before the project even broke ground, and then it got cancelled.
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Old 03-17-2016, 05:17 PM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
2,514 posts, read 5,003,970 times
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My grandfather worked at that Colgate plant with the big clock from the early 1930s to the early 60s. He lived in Nutley and commuted by train. He was a chemist; he created the formula for the original Ajax cleanser and an earlier laundry soap product called Super Suds. He later specialized in the Development side of R&D - he went around the country teaching all the Colgate factories how to make detergent instead of soap, and ended his career as the first head of the Pilot Plant, where they figured out how to manufacture all of the crazy concoctions that the labs came up with.

My grandfather's name appears at the bottom of page 6 of this document:
https://cdn.loc.gov/master/pnp/habsh...nj1710data.pdf
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Old 03-17-2016, 05:41 PM
 
Location: Mid-Atlantic
32,801 posts, read 36,059,005 times
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page 5?
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Old 03-17-2016, 09:31 PM
 
Location: JC
1,837 posts, read 1,601,209 times
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The PATH system was originally built as the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad. Vehicle crossings like the GW Bridge and Holland Tunnel stole riders as Americans fell in love with the automobile. The H&M RR fell into bankruptcy and was acquired by the Port Authority in the 1960's. Freedom of the road was the stake that drove into the heart of railroads across the country

Building a transit network of that scale is sadly difficult today. I get angry reading about the costs and horrible quality problems with new stations like Hudson Yards 34th.
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Old 03-18-2016, 10:56 AM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
2,514 posts, read 5,003,970 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerania View Post
page 5?
You're right, I didn't notice the "(Page 5)" in the heading. It's page 6 of the 9-page pdf file.
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Old 03-18-2016, 12:57 PM
 
2,160 posts, read 4,946,738 times
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I remember when Newport mall first opened in the 80s. I was a little kid but my older cousins would let me tag along with them. We'd all pile onto the PATH to get there, and it was the most exciting thing in the world. I remember getting off the train at Newport and it being a ghost town except for the mall...very windy, with nothing around. The movie theater was a Cineplex Odeon back then. Also, the PATH fare was just a dollar, and we used tokens, not swipe cards.

The end of the movie Sid & Nancy was filmed in that general area a year or two before the development began:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72h3tA4DzwA

In the beginning, it looks like Gary Oldman is walking along the Hudson River walkway at Liberty State Park, but I'm not sure. At the end, when the taxi is driving away, I think they're near the Powerhouse.

Other random things I remember about the Jersey City of yore is the Trust Company bank in Journal Square. "The bank with heart since 1896". RIP. That had to have been the tallest building in Jersey City at one point. I remember my mother taking me in there as a kid. It was all marble inside. I still have the savings account she started for me there in the 70s. It's Capital One Bank account now, of course.

I also remember that Journal Square had 3 theaters back then...of course the Loew's and the Stanley, but also the State theater on Kennedy Blvd. There was a small dance studio a few doors down where I used to take ballet & tap. I can't remember now if it was the State or the Loew's where we'd have our little recitals.

And I remember Lincoln Park in the era of the Duncan projects. If you went there at dusk or dawn, you were asking to get jumped. My friend got beaten up by Duncan kids, in broad daylight, while waiting for the bus on Kennedy Blvd right outside St. Dom's. They snatched her walkman too.
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Old 03-18-2016, 01:18 PM
 
Location: NJ
4,940 posts, read 12,098,963 times
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About 10 years ago I lived in one of the brownstones near Hamilton Park. My landlord bought the building in the mid 80's and told me that Hamilton Park was essentially an open air drug market during that era up until about the mid 90's. He also mentioned that where Golden Door Charter school is (on 9th St. near the mall) used to be some type of factory before they knocked it down and built the school.

Around the time I moved to the neighborhood in 2005, the Roosevelt apartment building on 10th St. (between Manila and Marin Blvd.) did not exist. It was just a vacant dirt lot. Living in a brownstone was interesting. It was unbearably hot in the summer and cold and drafty in the winter. I don't miss those days...
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Old 03-18-2016, 03:44 PM
 
31,682 posts, read 26,569,406 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GoHuskies View Post
The PATH system was originally built as the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad. Vehicle crossings like the GW Bridge and Holland Tunnel stole riders as Americans fell in love with the automobile. The H&M RR fell into bankruptcy and was acquired by the Port Authority in the 1960's. Freedom of the road was the stake that drove into the heart of railroads across the country

Building a transit network of that scale is sadly difficult today. I get angry reading about the costs and horrible quality problems with new stations like Hudson Yards 34th.

Post WWII American love affair with the automobile and the (mostly government) funded built infrastructure killed off the large and extensive rail and ferry services that once lined North River (original name before Hudson River).


At one time five railroads (Central of New Jersey, Pennsylvania Railroad in Exchange Place, the Erie Railroad Terminal in Pavonia, the Lackawanna Railroad Terminal in Hoboken, and the West Shore Railroad Terminal in Weehawken) had terminals, yards and ferry service along the Hudson. Today only the former Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken is still in active use.


The great PRR was the only one to build a tunnel across the Hudson into Manhattan which gave it an edge as passengers no longer had to take a ferry to or from New Jersey to get trains that would connect them to the rest of the USA.
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Old 03-18-2016, 04:00 PM
 
31,682 posts, read 26,569,406 times
Reputation: 24510
Quote:
Originally Posted by qrysdonnell View Post
The past always seems rosy, but things didn't necessarily go any more smoothly back then.

Planned 1887. Construction stopped in 1880 after 20+ deaths due to questionable engineering choices. Restarted in 1890, but then funding ran out. Restarted again in 1900. First train runs in 1907. System completed (33rd st/Newark terminals) 1911.

So finished 24 years from the start. Estimated adjusted cost is $1.5 billion ($60 million at the time).
PRR spent around 111 million (in then money) for the ROW/Hudson River tunnels. Cannot recall if that includes Penn Station head house and through tunnel onto Long Island.
The Rise and Fall of Penn Station . American Experience . WGBH | PBS


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Project


While that number does indeed and is staggering you have to remember as a private company/project at that time the PRR along with anyone else could build major infrastructure projects with vastly little interference from federal or local governments.


Workers (immigrants) could and were brought in from Europe or elsewhere. Safety was pretty much down to what the company said it was. Union labor work rules? Forget about that. Environmental impact studies? Don't make me laugh...
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Old 03-20-2016, 06:24 AM
 
1,319 posts, read 4,238,309 times
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What many people forget to realize is that many, if not most urban parts of NYC and immediate surrounding area like JC was rough in 80s and 90s, ripe with gangs and still recovering from urban decay of 70s. JC was a dump 80s to 90s and I mean the nice areas were dump. Bad areas in JC were really rough.

Started to turn around in late 90s and early 00s fueled by mortgage boom with end of white flight and NYC + immediate surrounding areas begun to get gentrified starting with Gen X and now largely fueled by millennials + rich foreigners money (i.e. China)
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