Hudson River Waterfront Walkway

The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, located on Kill van Kull and the western shore of Upper New York Bay and the Hudson River, is an ongoing and incomplete project inspired by a New Jersey state-mandated master plan to connect the municipalities from the Bayonne Bridge to the George Washington Bridge with an urban linear park and provide contiguous unhindered access to the water's edge. There is no projected date for its completion, though large segments have been built or incorporated into it since its inception. The southern end in Bayonne may eventually connect to the Hackensack RiverWalk, another proposed walkway along Newark Bay and Hackensack River on the west side of the Hudson County peninsula. Its northern end will be in Palisades Interstate Park, allowing users to continue along the river bank and alpine paths to the New Jersey/New York state line and beyond. (A connection to the Long Path, a 330 mile hiking trail with terminus near Albany, is feasible.) As of 2007, eleven miles of walkway have been completed, with an additional five miles along designated HRWW on Broadway in Bayonne.

Panorama from Liberty Island

Route

NASA image of the lower Hudson

The distance of the walkway from beginning to end is approximately 18.5 miles as it follows the contour of the shore-line. It traverses established residential and commercial areas, re-developed piers, wetland preservation zones, industrial and transportation infrastructure, and is dotted with public and private marinas. Expansive views of the water and the New York skyline can be seen from most of its length. It will eventually pass through the following municipalities (which have combined population of approximately 550,000).

• Bayonne (2000 population of 61,842)
• Jersey City (240,055)
• Hoboken (38,577)
• Weehawken (13,501)
• West New York (45,768)
• Guttenberg (10,807)
• North Bergen (58,092)
• Edgewater (7,677)
• Fort Lee (35,461)

History

A walkway or promenade along the northeastern New Jersey waterfront was first discussed at a state level in the late 1970s. In 1988, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection created the Coastal Zone Management Rules, which outlined the regulations and specifications for its construction. They require anyone building within 100 feet of the water's edge to provide a minimum of 30-feet wide open, public space along it. Construction must be permitted by the agency and paid for by the developer. In 1999, the National Association of Home Builders and the New Jersey Builders Association challenged the obligation in court as an unfair taking of private property under eminent domain, saying that property owners should be compensated as specified by the "Takings clause" of the Fifth Amendment. A federal judge rejected the suit, upholding a state rule that requires property owners to provide access to the waterfront.

Obstacles and advantages

• The land upon which the walkway is built (or to be built) is held privately and publicly, and in the case of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, semi-publicly.
• Privately held land is not required to have a walkway until it is re-developed. Some areas, particularly south of Liberty State Park, have been intensely privatized with wealthy residents who prefer to avoid the passage of the walkway through their neighborhood.
• The topography is diverse, with some canals or coves that come quite far inland, requiring the walkway to either go around them or cross them with bridges.
• Transportation, industrial, or shipping infrastructure is found along the route, and it's construction would interfere with their operation and public safety.
• Each municipality implements and enforces its own zoning rules, and often negotiates with developers with a local rather than regional interest, and have other municipal open-space projects to which funds must be dedicated.
• Much of the land on which the walkway crosses had maritime or industrial uses, but was abandoned.
• Most housing and commercial real-estate developers see the advantage of providing access to the water as a selling point
• Some sections of the Walkway are easily accessible by public transportation particularly by the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and NY Waterway ferries.

Bayonne Bridge at sunset

Parks and Attractions

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Tear of Grief sculpture, taken on September 11, 2006 at the ceremony of its unveiling

• Bayonne Bridge, world's third-longest steel arch bridge
• Kill van Kull Park
  • Bradys Dock
• Constable Hook
  • former Standard Oil Tank Cleaning Services/Texaco site
  • Port Johnson
  • Bayonne Golf Course-site of most extnsive brownfields reclamation project in New Jersey

• The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, former site of The Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne
  • Tear of Grief, commemorating events of September 11, 2001
  • Cape Liberty Cruise Port

• Port Jersey Industrial Marine Center
  • Waterfront Observation Tower and bird sanctuary

Caven Point

• • Cochrane Athletic Field
  • Port Liberte, a "gated" community
  • Liberty State Park
  • US Army Reserve Center
  • Liberty National Golf Course

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Plaque marking site of Black Tom explosion

• Liberty State Park
  • Black Tom, site of World War I sabotage explosion
  • Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal
  • Circle Line ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island
  • Morris Canal Big Basin and Little Basin
  • Liberty Science Center

Flags at half-staff in Liberty State Park.

• Colgate Clock, with claims to being the world's largest
• Goldman Sachs Tower, tallest building in New Jersey.
• Exchange Place, downtown Jersey City's "financial" district
• Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Powerhouse
• Harsimus Cove.
• Pavonia/Newport, site of one of New Jersey's first European settlements and first genocide of Native Americans by them, and Pavonia Terminal (1861-1958)
• Holland Tunnel Ventilation Tower, with twin across river
• Long Canal

Pier A

• Hoboken Terminal, 1908 national landmark and major transportation hub
• Pier A
• Marineview Plaza, an urban renewal project built in the Brutalist style
• Stevens Institute of Technology
• Castle Point
• Sybil's Cave, long-abandoned site of spring that was inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe murder mystery (1841)
• Elysian Park
• Hoboken Historical Museum
• Hudson Tea Building, massive former Lipton Tea plant
• Weehawken Cove, where Henry Hudson's Half Moon anchored in 1609
• The Atrium, home to events sponsored by the proposed Hudson River Performing Arts Center
• King's Bluff, at the foot of which once stood a plateau that became America's most famous dueling ground, most notably the Burr-Hamilton duel in 1804
• Lincoln Tunnel Ventilation Towers

• West Shore Railroad Tunnel, used by Hudson-Bergen Light Rail
• NY Waterway Ferry Terminal
• Kestrel, a historic steam yacht
• Galaxy Towers, a trio of octagonal highrises built in the late 1970s
• Palisades General Hospital
• Edgewater Driving Range
• Hess Oil Tank Farm
• Edgewater Cemetery, with 19th and 20th century graves
• The Binghamton, decommissioned ferry and registered national historic place

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The George Washington Bridge

• Mitsuwa Marketplace
• Edgewater Municipal Building
• Edgewater Marina Park and Ferry Terminal
• Veterans Park, home to Edgewater Community Center and plaque commemorating "Vriessendael", the first European settlement in what would become contemporary Bergen County

• Bluff, atop which sits Fort Lee Historic Park, site of George Washington's 1776 encampment
• Palisades Interstate Park
• George Washington Bridge