The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-07-15
TO SAVE PALISADES
New York and New Jersey
Commissioners Visit the
Big Rocks.
DAMAGE DONE BY THE QUARRIEs
An Effort to Be Made to Induce
Congress to Make a Natural
Park Along the Bluff.
DONE BY THE QUARRIEs

-
The Pennsylvania tug America left
this city early Saturday morning With
State Senator H. Winton and c. b.
Thurston, Palisades Commissioners for
New Jersey, on board. 1t steamed to
the foot of West 125th street, New YORK,
where embarked Commissioners Waldo
Morse, of Yonkers; ]. F.. Cross and b. q.
Bell. of Nyack, representing this state.
There were also on board as guests Il.
r. Brooks and Henry c. Ross, of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, who are IN
tense1y interested in the preservation or
the Palisades. The Commissioners while
they had met before, were started on
their first official errand, as prescribed
bv the recent statutes of both New YORK
and New Jersey, to determine what
course should be taken to save from en-
croachments the Palisade Mountains
and to formulate a report so that the
next Congress may be able to act intel
ligently in appropriating a sufhcient
amount Of money so that at least the
riparian rights to the shore at the foot
of the Palisades may be purchased ana
a natural park be laid out so that the
Hudson may not be dispoiled.
OLD QUARRY DEPARTMENTS.
The trip of inspection was begun just
above Fort Lee and continued to HOOK
Mountain. above Nyack. From the start
to the turn the Commissioners discovered
a succession of places along the base OF
the great basaltic cliffs where ravages
not alone threaten their beauty but as
sure their destruction. Many of these
points south of Alpine were the sites of
old talus quarries, where the face OF
the rock had been injured by great in
roads into the base of the cliffs, made
in selecting bowlers for crushing ma
chimes. and the nutritive soil destroyed
Inc vegetation of all sorts killed, leaving
the great slopes bare and ugly and de.
trees and underbush which have made
the Palisades during nine months of the
year SO magnificently picturesque.
quarries demonstrated to the Commits
sioners the necessity not alone OF pre-
venting any extension of this work in
the future. but also the adoption q
should repair the avages which had
been made. The points which were of
the greatest interest were those at
active operations. The first of these
was the quarry of Brown K Fleming,
near Englewood. Here enormous blasts
HIVE BeeiI tAPiOItd NaA SSNA
ling the citizens of Harlem and Yonkers
with the noise of a field battery in &C
ton. The face of the cliff has been de-
FIVE hundred feet. The debris is piled
three undred feet high, so that what
was until recently q magnificent SIT
with beautiful trees, resembles now
nothing SO much as the enormous sand
dumas At Southampton.
ACTIVE QUARRIES AND THEIR
MAG
Below this point, as well as north OF
1t, there are several quarries in ACTIVE
penter Brothers, where the cliff has been
defaced irreparably. This firm has a lease
# the property, which will continu nf
existing laws, they will not be able to
renew their rights. Above Brown &
Fleln.ng''s quarry. are those Of Rose 4
abandoned. but which show wide and
brown and ugly between the verdurec
P. G~allaeher's, two CIR three miles above,
and all the ~paraphernalia of destruc-
t.on. and still further north. above
Yonkers. the works of the New York
parently worked its machinery far over
time. and has made a gap in the most
beautiful part Of the Palisades near the
famous Indian Head, which will take
At Hook Mountain the a We're
not SO, conspicuous. as they were along
the MAIN range OF GdllsdCS CiiilSy "a
eyen there the work of the quarryman
and stone crusher was sadly evident.
The inspection by the commission was
conducted most carefully. Senator Win
ston explained the laws governing the
rights of property holders n he pos
SCISSORS of leaseholds. Mr.. Cross ex.
pounded the geological peculiarities of
the region, and Mr.. Morse told of the
revolutionary and colonial history of
the wonderfully interesting region. Then
the America was headed south again
and went to- her destination by way of
the new Harlem Ship Canal. The en-
thusiasm displayed by the Commission
nrs over the possibilities of saving the
Palisades presaged an almost certain ac-
romplishment
CONCERTED MOVEMENT OF CON
GRESS
take a trip along the brink of the cliffs,
and carefully ascertain the requirements
available for the establishment of a
national park, reaching from Fort Lee
to the end Of the first range above Yon-
kers and Hook Mountain, whore the
basaltic formation ~reappears. They viii
hold frequent meetings in the summer
for the purpose of considering the posi-
HE boundaries of the park, as well as
determining the prospective cost of ac-
curing the necessary land. 1t is their
intention to begin In active canvass
among the members of the LEGISLATURE
among their Con ressional representa-
lives. so that when Congress convenes
a bill may be presented authorizing an
expenditure adequate to the Importance
of the undertaking.