Babbitt, North Bergen

Babbitt is a neighborhood in North Bergen Township in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.[2] The area, located west of Tonnelle Avenue within the New Jersey Meadowlands District, is home to light manufacturing, warehouses, transportation facilities, and part of the wetlands preservation area known as the Eastern Brackish Marsh.[3][4]

Babbitt, North Bergen
Unincorporated community
Babbitt, North Bergen
Coordinates: 40°48′35″N 74°01′12″W
Country	United States
State	New Jersey
County	Hudson
Township	North Bergen
Elevation [1]	10 ft (3 m)
GNIS feature ID	874439[1]

Babbitt's Best Soap

The name is taken from the company that produced Babbitt's Best Soap, named after its founder, Benjamin T. Babbitt. In 1904 the company purchased a tract of 87 acres (35 ha) between Granton and Faiview,[5] and in 1907 relocated from its former premises, a 22,000 square feet (2,000 m²) facility on West Street in Lower Manhattan.[6] to what was then one of the largest soap manufacturing plants in the world.[7] Sinclair Lewis's novel Babbitt about an industrialist used the surname.[8]

Granton Junction and Babbitt station

Station circa 1910

View west to NYSW and Northern Branch at grade crossings and West Shore viaduct at 83rd Street, which is slated for closure if the HBLR extension is built.

The Northern Branch Corridor passes under CSX River Division.

The West Shore Railroad, the Erie Railroad's Northern Branch, and the New York, Susquehanna, and Western (NYSW) all passed through the area running parallel to each other.[9] Both Erie and NYSW maintained minor stations[10] nearby 83rd Street, which crossed under the right-of-way of the West Shore. Granton Junction was located just south of the stations and was where NYSW and Erie converged after the latter had also passed under the West Shore.[11][12] For a time Granton was busy railroad junction used by both the Erie and NYSW, which shared track and stations, including the Susquehanna Transfer. The name Granton comes from a former quarry that later was site of an important fossil find of a phytosaur.[13] Joint operations between the Erie and NYSW were controlled by GR Tower, which in 1959 was destroyed by fire, ending the relationship.[14] Originally the soap works were outfitted with rail spurs by the NYSW, but by 1909 they had been removed in a renegade action in which factory workers where locked-up and the tracks removed and hauled away.[15] In August 1922, a full Sunday evening Erie train heading south to Pavonia Terminal was struck by bombs thrown at it in what was considered an act of sabotage and an attempt to cause a collision.[16]

CSX and HBLR Northern Branch 91st Street station

The West Shore subsequently became Conrail's River Line, and eventually the CSX River Subdivision which begins to the south at North Bergen Yard. Road access to its Little Ferry Yard is located in Babbitt.

The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail extension into eastern Bergen County known as the Northern Branch Corridor Project calls for the closure of the at-grade crossing at 83rd Street and creation of a new one at 85th Street.[17]

A 91st Street (HBLR station) is planned.

See also

• List of neighborhoods in North Bergen, New Jersey
• List of New Jersey railroad junctions
• NYSW (passenger 1939-1966) map
• Northern Branch (NJ Transit) map

References

1. "Babbitt". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
2. Locality Search Archived July 9, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, State of New Jersey. Accessed February 7, 2015.
3. "USGS Map Name:Weehawken, NJ Map MRC: 40074G1". TopoQuest. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
4. "Eastern Brackish Marsh". New Jersey Meadowlands Commission. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
5. "To Abandon Down-Town Factory Site" (PDF). The New York Times. June 12, 1904. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
6. "Big Downtown Sale" (PDF). The New York Times. April 17, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
7. "In the Real Estate Field: New Babbitt Plant Mortgaged" (PDF). The New York Times. November 23, 1907. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
8. "Find a Grave". Benjamin T. Babbitt. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
9. "Appendix H: Historic Properties and Resources" (PDF). Northern Branch Corridor Project DEIS. New Jersey Transit. December 2011. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
10. "List of Station Names and Numbers". Jersey City, New Jersey: Erie Railroad. May 1, 1916. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
11. Sheppard, Bill (October 1977). "Granton Junction" (PDF). The Block Line. National Railway Historical Society (Tri-State Chapter). V (VIII). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 4, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
12. Kaminski, Edward S. (2010), New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway in New Jersey, Arcadia Publishing, p. 9, ISBN 978-0-7385-7367-0
13. Colbertz, Edwin (September 10, 1965). "A Phytosaur from North Bergen, New Jersey" (PDF). American Museum Novitates. American Museum of Natural History (2230). Retrieved September 30, 2013.
14. Mohowski, Robert E. (2003), New York Susquehanna and Western, Johns Hopkins University Press
15. "Seize Factory Hands Remove Its Track" (PDF). The New York Times. May 25, 1909. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
16. "Bombs Strike Two Cars" (PDF). The New York Times. August 14, 1922. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
17. "85th Street at Grade Realignment & Closure of 83rd Street" (PDF). Northern Branch Corridor. New Jersey Transit. Retrieved September 30, 2013.