Morris Canal "Big" Basin

Morris Canal "Big" Basin

Jersey City's role as the region's prime railroad center was vital to the operation of the Port of New York and New Jersey. Goods shipped east by train were transferred to New York and New Jersey piers by lighters and by car floats, introduced in 1866, or else loaded onto some of the few freighters which docked on the New Jersey side of the port. The pictures shown here were taken in 1954, in the waning years of the city's railroad industry. In the 1960s and 1970s, the interstate highway system expanded truck transit and container shipping changed the requirements of port facilities, making the railyards of the Jersey City waterfront obsolete.

The "Big" Basin of the Morris Canal, also known as the Tide Water Basin, originated in a deep water channel cut to regulate tidewater between the Mill Creek and the Hudson River. During the relatively short time that the Morris Canal was in heavy use, the basin served as a holding area for barges waiting to access the canal.

The Lehigh Valley Railroad leased the Morris Canal route in 1871, and purchased the land on the southern side of the big basin in 1872. Conflict with the Central Railroad, which was developing its own site as it filled in the adjoining Communipaw Cove, prevented development by the Lehigh until 1887. By the turn of the century the series of finger piers shown here were in place. The north side of the basin was used by private industry and dry dock port services.

Today the big basin is still in maritime use, as the Liberty Landing Marina.