The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-12-08
JBRSB7MAD'S DREAM.
Abraham Zabriskie's Steam.
boat OF Over Fifty Years Ago
"A River Venture.

The Newark Sunday Call this week
tells an interesting story of an old time
steamboat enterprise on the Passaic. 1t
appears that about ffty-fve years ago
some enterprislng persons got it into their
heads that the Passaic River, from New
ark Bay to Paterson, could be utilized for
steamboat traffic and that a deal of
money could be made by carrying freight
and passengers from New York to the re-
gion above Passaic. They were most
sanguine and spent considerable money,
much of which they never got back. AT
that time the steamboat was just begin
ming to find its way to the smaller streams
and inland lakes, and the people had ex-
aggerated ideas of its future. The Jersey
promoters of his scheme could not see
failure. They thought the farmers 0
BelleviiIe would flock to the steamboat
wharf with their produce, and that in a
twinkling they would have a monopoly
of their trade between New York and the
region above Newark and as far as Pat
erson. But the railroad, of which there
was already one to Paterson, soon began
to assert itself, and the steamboat, after
it's days of novelty were over, drifted into
disuse. It had it's day. like all other things
and men.
The Legislature of 1912 passed a bill reg
ulating the building of bridges over the
Passaic to the extent that all erected be-
low tide water should lave draw bridges
at least thirty-five feet wide. There was
but one bridge thai had a draw less than
the limit prescribed-that Of the Pater-
son Railroad, near ACCOMPLISHMENTS. Ac-
-auackannock is that section where
Athena and Clifton now are. The steam
49, .aaMa4on 80 babfra tbis law FOR
ooat pioihotsis ~SiS
they wanted the bridges TO nave draws
wide enough to admit of the passage of
+ha;r staamhoat Having secured the
49, I'm noho.+ ,ao1
eiiacehleht u tnea Oil ~
pie went to work on the boat itself.
Abraham Zabr;skie. of Saddle was
- ,aaainn .r;.;t IL +ha staa,oboa4 mo-
.ie 49, 80. ~
Ject-h Iael, ne seems 10 nave peeii ING
only one of great energy. He it was that
circulated 4 ~netitien around Paterson and
.t~snama $50. ,,ro;nr me +ba
me hslsnpoltiis toWns uiSii5 upoi -
LeSlsiatuTe tne VISION o. passins ING
nIlose oil ne seeuiT radna ynara csresin
- stoa2,soa xgo1,1d onan mn their soo-
tinn - tha o,,+eisa worth brinr scores of
ffan9;1iios 70 setfIe sn1 sly, MATS traae ana
~ y II - ~ Wo6risLia had
for a long time had the m bee in
his honnet He thought he eouid NV his
up the river to the n~eighbor-
hood nf Patersnn and make q 1riD from
New York. some fifteen miles above the
point where steam vessels had previous
ly piled. So he went TO work with great
enthusiasm and built the first steamboat
ever seen on the upper PaSsaic.
The hull Of the new beat was built at
the mouth of Saddle River, and people
focked from miles around to see it. 1t
Was built on what was then called a
novel principle, being intended for the
upper Passaic navigation, where there are
innuEnerable bars and reefs and where II
IS possible to send a boat OF very ilght
draught. The boat was called the Pro-
prietor, n was built by Henry Brown,
of Bellevllle. Her tonnage was 20 tons
and her Keel 100 feet long. Her beam was
according to the old record "a centre
boardo-a novelty IN STEAMBOATS,. Ihe
centre board is eighteen feet in length
and eight one-half in depth, and 1t
can be raised and deepened at pleasure
and according to the depth OF the water.
water and prevent swinging out of her
course. Her machinery is to be OF the
pest description, from S6iiiman q cos
Novelty WORKS; New YORK. Her engine
Will be from eighty 70 one hundred pounds
horse power, n VIII nave a ~thlrty-four-
inch cylinder. a n1ne-feet STROKE ana nlne-
inch Wfougnt-lron snaItS ana cFahhs-
diameter of her wheels will be TWEEN
feet above the deck.
A strang sight the proprietor would
make to-day pulling ana screaming up
the Passaic, her huge propellers lashing
the water into foam and her great shafts
rising n falling, with a cloud of smok
rising from her tunnels, and the whole
clumsy apparatus creaking and grooming
like Leviathan in pain.
ssFhe vessel is now in New York" con-
tinaes the old account. receiving her ma
chinery. and IS expected to
;unning about the LIST day of May. fThe
account appeared in February She was
launched in November last, when it was
aisaoYerad tbat her drsnghf Of water,
MA her macbinerv was eleven inches
r IL s,,nnosad that Win fhe macbineTy
weighing about forty ions, it will be
apout elsn.eei ny in4a r. passaiic
ooas orfa1d VIZ tba ra aaa Of the saddle Riy-
q G aad e y dargn straam ana toHreS to
81, any nDateG uoMm rnen nho,,+ 81 Tn;,eS
New 4ork.l enc VII run aeoul L1a rnlaes
above me car Ioau g. az f frn1Sn
IRON Whlch place p~assensers anu lrelsnl
Will pc OYER any 70 mn'srsJn,
pe iea5 hat tx she banV viii run mt to Ne New 1g York, a