The Jersey City news., 1901-06-03
MEADOW RECLAMATION
Lehigh Valley Road Has
Been Carrying on the
Work for a Year.

Practical reclamation of part of the
Newark meadows has been going on for
about a year. The work has been carried
on by the Lehigh Valley Railroad on q
strip. of marshes about a quarter OF a
mile wide and about a mile long. The
newly reclaimed land lies along the COM
pany's line on the north side between
where it crosses the Elizabethport branch
of the Central Railroad and Newark
Bay.
Much of the meadow land which the
company desires for It's use has been
reclaimed for freight yard purposes L
constitutes the east section of what is
known to the Lehigh Railroad employees
as the Oak Island freight yard.
In view of the many complicated the
ories which have been put forward for
years as practicable for the reclamation
of the meadows, the ease with which tne
present work is being carried out appears
remarkable by it's simplicity. When the
work was started the Lehigh Company
had It's lire across the meadows to use as
sort OF starting ground The company
contracted with carriers of New York
City garbage to obtain all that class of
material which is usually adapted for
filling in purposes. The greater portion
of it consisted of ashes or solids. 1t IS
taken up Newark Bay to the meadow
land which the Lehigh Company owns.
There it is lifted out of the scows and
first USED as a backing for a dixie, whicn
stretches along the bay on the company $
property Gradually the work was ex-
tended inland When within foot or
two Of the height the reclaimed laid was
desired to be, the refuse was covered
over with ashes and clay. AS the WORK
progressed a temporary track was laid
In time the Lehigh line was paralleled
with the Central Railroad crossing. Cars
were used for carrying the filling-in ma
terial. small locomotives being used for
switching purposes.
An idea of the extent to which the
meadow has been reclaimed may be got
ten when it is stated that where a year
and a half ago the Lehigh had but ats
double-track line, it now has more than
sixty switches laid The work is still pro-
crossing. and it is expected by the rail-
road engineers that within a year or two
the meadow section which it owns along
Newark Bay will be transformed into an
enormous freight yard
The place Where the meadoWs HaNS
been made into new land shows no sign
of sinking, being as solid as might be de-
sired for either railroad or factory pur-
poses. 1t is also claimed that the Work
is being carried out at minimum Of
cost. Whether the same methods are ap-
plicable to other portions of the meadow
land cannot be definitely stated.
According to present arrangements the
Oak Island yard is intended as the point
for receiving all freight which is to go
over the Lehigh line from Newark to Jer-
sey City and New York.
There all mixed" freight trains are
received, and by means of an ingenious
system of switches, care which contain
the same class of merchandise are quickly
made up into separate sections. This does
away with extra handling, because the
cars under the old system were sorted
out at the Hudson county terminal, and
thus much confusion was caused.
With the new facilities the freight goes
into New York, each train or sequence
of cars carrying one particular kind of
freight.