The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-08-31
A STORY OF PROGRESS.
Jersey City's Growth Illus
trated in the Changes in
the P. r. r. Depot.
MEMORIES OF THE PAST
Notable Scenes in the Old Buildings
---Primitiye Railway Trayel---
Lincoln's Funeral.

The ponderous cranes aud derricks
which pick up the huge beams and mas
sfve slabs of stone and handles them as
easily as a child would chip or
pebble, together with . large force Of
workmen are rapidly demolishing the old
train shed Of the Pennsylvania Railroad
depot at Exchange place to make way for
the elaborate and modern two story sta
ton which the company proposes to erect
in connection with It's elevated system
The new structure will be the fifth rail
road depot to occupy that site The first
was erected beyond the memory Of many
now living It stood on the west side OF
Hudson street and extended westward
toward Green street several hundred feet.
At that time the river came up to Hudson
street. and sea wall running along what
is now the west side of Hudson street
protected the shore from the inro ads of
the water
The old New Jersey Railroad and
Transportation Company, which Is the
charter name of the road from New
Brunswick to this city, was organized in
March, 1882, and the first excursion over
the road was made in 1884 in the car
Washington. which was described at
the time as "a beautiful and splendid
specimen of workmanship, with three
compartments and seats on top"
The terminus of the road was then at
the old Paulus Hook ferry on the river
at point between Essex and Morris
streets. The shore at that time started
at the old ferry and rose in a northwest
erly direction. The old railroad branched
of from its present line at about Green
street and ran southeasterly 70 the old
ferry.
PRIMITIVE TRAVELLING.
The road at that time extended from
Newark to Jersey City. and the
cars were drawn by horses, the
motive power being stabbed in
large barn near the OLD ferry. The
horses dragged the cars over the mill, and
1t took Just one and one-half hours to
make the trip. In 1885 the first engine,
the Newark, went over the road, and
in 1888 the cut through the hill was com
pleted. The present cut, straight as an
arrow, is far different from the origi-
nal Railroad engineering was then
in its infancy, and distractions
which are now thought nothing
of were in those days considered almost
unsurmountable obstacles There was
gully running through the line from
around old Mount Pleasant to the Marion
Station which made complete 5. This
was followed by the engineers, and until
within few years the fastest trains
crepr through this tortuous cut.
The old Green street station was also
used by the Paterson and HUDSON River
Railroad. which extended from this city
to Paterson, and is now part of the Erie
Railroad. It ran over the tracks of the
New Jersey Railroad to Marion, where it
bfanehed off over the road bed now used
by the New York, Susquehanna and
Western.
The first station was a low shed like
structure and had only three tracks, the
entrance to each of which was protected
by huge door. 1t had number of
windows on the Montgomery street side
aud the ferry entrance was at Hudson
street. Mr. James B. Vredenburgh has
a Autograph of the old station hanging
in his Office, in which Dudley S. Gregory
and Peter Henderson can be seen riding
up the street in Mr.. GregorY's carriage.
The original station was built ABOUT
1910 and was abandoned in 1852 but still
remained standing until 1871, when it
was torn down. During the war 1t was
used for the embarkation of troops for
the South. and many a stirring scene
was witnessed there in those exciting
times.
THE MAKING OF EXCHANGE PLACE.
The railroad company soon extended
its road and became wealthy. 1t re-
claimed a large strip of land from the
water east of Hudson street which is
now traversed by Exchange place. In
1859 the second depot, extending from
Hudson street to the present water front,
was erected. This was a brick structure
with tower at each corner of the west
ern wall, the northern being surmounted
by ferryboat as a weather cock and the
southern by locomotive.
Many famous persOnages passed
through this station in its day. Abraham
Lincoln would always hold reception
there whenever he came to New York,
and there it was that he stood back to
back with Edgar b. Wakeman, one of
Jersey City's old time lawyers, to see
which was the tallest. while an admiring
constituency yelled themselves hoarse.
The young Prince Of Wales took one Of
the old fashioned coaches from that
depot when he went to pay his respects
to the President and when the Russian
Grand Duke Alexis went down to Wash
ington to tell President Grant how much
his imperial sire thought of this country,
he stood upon the rear platform of a car
in this depot and at u hint from the
Russian minister took of his hat and
bowed awkardly to the open mouthed
republicans who mad bought tickets to
Newark-and they cost them almost
twice as much as they do now-in order
to get into the depot to see his imperial
whlskerS.
Generals, admirals, statesmen and dip
lomats without number stabbed their
toes in the cracks in the planks of the old
depot, and no doubt thought it was a
beautiful structure, with It's prison-like
waiting room and its low ferry entrances,
down which one had to go with feeling
akin to that which you would imagine
Virgil and Dante experienced as they
went down the approaches to Hades.
There laughing and joyous wedding
parties have boarded the trains. and sad
mourners here silently entered the
coaches after seeing the box containing
all that is left of some dear one placed in
the baggage car. There, too, men So
curely handcuffed have entered the
cars for the last ride they had
in many long year, and during the war
it was frequent sight to see manacled
army, and carefully guarded by soldiers.
pass into the cars. They were criminals,
deserters and bounty jumpers on their
way to undergo imprisonment for their
crimes
ABRAHAM LINcoLN's FUNERAL.
The greatest event in which the old de-
pot figured was the funeral of Abraham
Lincoln. The body was taken from the
special car which brought it from Wash
ington at the Hudson street end of the
depot, and carried between the cordons
of soldiers which lined Exchange place to
the ferry. That one block parade was
Jersey City's share of the great funeral
pageant. and even for that little she was
thankful.
In 1871 the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company leased the New Jersey Railroad