The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-02-18
ice AND FOG.
Delayed Ferryboats Cause
One of the Worse Blocks
City Ever Saw.
TRUCKS STAND TO OLD CITY HALL
Trolley Cars Proceed With
Difficulty Good Work
by the Police.
TRUCKS STAND TO OLD CITY HALL

subjected to such inconvenience anu all
noyance as they have today. 1t frequently
happens that fog delays them for time
and a string of teams extending up 10
Washington street is not an infrequehe
sight. but such block and delay as was
experienced this morning is something
which very seldom happens.
The heavy fog which hung deep over
the water and the thick ice which packed
the river from shore to shore greatly i'm
bad enough, but when the pilots have 10
bed enough but when the pilots have TO
contend with ice such as that which con-
fronted them this morning their appre-
hension increases. 1t was unusually thick
ice and in some cases when meeting the
heavy foes the ferryboats shook ana
ouiyered as though they had run against
a solid rock. The old fashioned side wheel
ers suffered the most from the ice, the
cakes getting clogged in their paddle
wheels and greatly impeding the progress
of the boats. The new screw boats had
no such experience, but forced their way
through the thickest foes with very little
if any dimiaution of their speed On us
six o'clock trip from New York this morn
ing the Cortlandt street boat New Jersey,
one of the old side-wheelers, broke her
steering gear. A huge chunk of thick ice
got iammed in the rudder and caused
break. The accident caused much delay,
but the employees of the company managed
to repair the rudder temporarily and the
boat resumed it's trip to this city After
it's passengers had been discharged the
New Jersey was taken to the company's S
lyn annex ferry had similar experience
1t was rounding the Battery this morning
on its eight o'clock trip to this city when
a cake of ice became clogged in her rud-
der and broke it. A tug brought the boat
to this city and it was laid up for re-
pairs. This left only one boat on the
route and doubled the running time be-
tween this city and Brooklyn. Many pas
sengers and teams concluded to take the
boat to New York and cross the city to
the Brooklyn Bridge or ferries, thinking
that they could make better time by going
that way than waiting for the annex.
All this caused one of the worse jams
in Jersey City, ever experience here
When travel was the heaviest, from
eight to eleven o'clock, lines of all
ferries up Montgomery street and Newark
avenue, as far as the old City Hall, with
branches on Hudson, Green and Wash
ington streets, that on Washington street
extending south as far as Morris street
The Montgomery street line extended on
both sides of the street as far as Warren
street, while the Newark avenue line,
which at one time, almost reached Hen
derson street. was on one side of the
street only.
Eight policemen were stretched along
this line enedeavoring to keep the drivers
and truckmen in some kind of line and
traffic moving, while more car inspectors
tried to keep the trolleys under way.
This was a very difficult matter. As is
well konwn, from Greene street, Mont
gomery street is a narrow thoroughfare,
and when the spaces occupied by the
double trolley tracks is taken out very
little is left for vehicles. The lines of
trucks and wagons were formed between
the curb and the outside rail of the troll
ley tracks and frequent jams were
occasioned by a truck with load that
extended it's body over the tracks. The
only way to get out of the snarl was to
drive the truck up on the sidewalk until
the trolley cars had passed and many
group of pedestrians, both men and
women. were startled and scattered BY
seeing team of powerful horses com.
ing directly toward them on the side
walk.
The most frequent blocks were at Mont
pomerv and washington streets, wher'
the Greenville, Bayenne and Newark car
turn into Washington street on their out
ward trips and the Turnpike, Montgomer'
street and Court House cars turn mt
the same street on their way to the ferry
Here when cars came up and cars cam
down. teams came from the ferry an
teams struggled to reach the ferry, tn
tangle seemed hopeless and inextricapie
But to their credit, it must be said' tina
the police stationed were men OF intel
ligence who knew their business, an
went about it the right way. In shor
order they extricated the mix up and ha
the vehicles moving and the cars running
The trolley inspectors also knew wna
they were about and handled their car
wen. at times sending all up Montgomer
street and at others using the Washing
ton and Grand streets tracks
The drivers and truckmen were incline
II first to be rebellious and impuden'
They attempted to drive where the
pleased, ana when spoken 70 BY the PC
lice replied in insoleM and profane lar
guage. the police, however, gave tiel