Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-01-04
SHIP CAN AL
FOR NEWARK.
Plan Under Way TO Give Upper
Part of the State Seven More
Miles Water Front.

Measures are being taken for the
cutting of a ship canal through the
peninsula of New Jersey. lying be-
tween the Hackensack and Hudson
rivers, which, when completed, it is
said, will add seven and one-half
miles TO the harbor frontage Of New
York, form an almost direct water
connection between New York and
Newark, relieve existing congestion,
which has compelled several steam
ship lines to seek facilities elsewhere
and prove of immense advantage to
commercial interests.
Representative w. II. Wiley, of
Orange, n. j., has introduced a con-
current resolution in congress pro-
viding for a survey of a ship canal
from Newark to New York Bay, and
he has the support not only of his
constituents, but also of the great
railroad and shipping interests,
which would be directly affected.
Preparations are also under way to
have the New Jersey legislature au-
thorize the purchase or condemna-
ton of the land needed for the pro-
ject, and it is believed that work will
be begun early in the spring.
Between Jersey City and Bayonne
the canal would lie, and be about a
mile long, two hundred feet wide and
deep enough for the largest freight
ships. It's terminals probably will
be used for dock purposes, and it is
estimated hat the entire cost of the
engineering work would be no more
than $350,000, which would make it
the cheapest ship canal on record.
With the State of New Jersey and
private capital both interested it is
thought that there would be little
difficulty in acquiring the necessary
land. as nearly all the rights of way
involved have long since lapsed.
In present conditions it is neces-
sary for all shipping plying between
New York and Newark, where there
are some of the largest manufactur-
ing enterprises in the country, to
pass down the Hudson and around
the New Jersey peninsula into the
Kill Won Kull, thence proceeding into
Newark bay and up the Passaic river.
The ship canal would afford a straight
passage across that part of New Jer-
sey. Perhaps the most important
consideration dwelt upon, however, is
the increase in docking facilities
which the project would bring about.
Shipping men declare that the pro-
visions for docking along the Hudson
river front of Manhattan are incalcu-
ably insufficient for the requirements
and that large quantities of freight
have to be landed as far away as
South Brooklyn. The ship canal, it
is said, would open a direct way to
that body of land known as the
Newark meadows, lying between the
Hackensack and Passaic rivers where
there are six thousand of acres of
land which is being reclaimed at the
rate of two and one-half acres a day.
and where there are ample docking
facilities.
The New JERSEY Terminal Com
pany OWLS this land, but it is said to
be allied with the interests control
ling the McAdoo and Hudson river
tunnels 1t is across these meadows
that the lines of the Pennsylvania,
Baltimore and Ohio, New Jersey Cen
trail, Delaware, Lackawanna and
Western and Erie railroads run into
Jersey City, and it was said yester-
day that the Pennsylvania railroad
is probably II of the main factors
in the plan for the new ship canal.
This statement was supported by
the fact that the Pennsylvania owns
! three and one-half miles of water
frontage on the Passaic and Hacken-
sack rivers and Newark bay, and if
there were a channel thirty feet deer
in a canal that would enable ocean
steamers to reach this water front
age. the terminal facilities of the
Pennsylvania would be doubled at
once.
Canvass of the New Jersey legisla-
ture on the subject has already been
made, and it is said that the senti-
ment is almost unanimous in its ia
vor. In the meantime, efforts will be
made in Washington to have the mat
ter placed before the river and harbOr
commission.