John Delach

For generations upon generations, the Hudson River stood as an absolute barrier between New York City and the rest of the continental United States with the exception of areas to the north and from the north, the route west from Albany to Chicago. Over time railroads that headed north and those that headed east to cities like Boston had tracks that extended into Manhattan. But it wasn’t until 1871 that the first rendition of Grand Central was constructed at the corner of Forty-Second Street and newly built, Vanderbilt Avenue. Originally named Grand Central Depot, it accommodated all of those railroads in one station.

Still, all the other trains from the south and the west stopped at the Hudson River including the multitude of commuter trains that carried daily passengers bound for Manhattan. The steam ferries that crossed over to Manhattan didn’t just carry passengers, they also carried wagons and, later, trucks carrying food, goods and merchandise destined for Manhattan destinations.

The southern most terminal was close to Ellis Island in Communipaw operated by the Central Railroad of New Jersey. It opened in 1864 and also serviced trains operated by the Baltimore and Ohio, Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Reading Railroad with its ferries crossing the Hudson to the Liberty Street Ferry Terminal until 1967.

The ferry terminal was demolished, but the railroad terminal has been renovated into a museum as part of Liberty State Park.

The Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City was operated by the Erie Railroad. It also serviced six other railroads including the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad. The Erie ferries ran to Manhattan terminals at Chambers Street and 23^rd Street. Service began in 1861 and ended in 1958 when the Erie merged with the Lackawanna and shifted to the Hoboken Terminal.

The Jersey City terminal lay dormant and abandoned until the 1980s when developers re-discovered the waterfront. In the process, the name Pavonia disappeared and is now called, Exchange Place.

Just to the north of the Pavonia Terminal, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) built an imposing terminal in Jersey City that they also called Exchange Place. The ferry terminal supported five slips and the train stations were covered by a large dome that towered over the tracks. The original terminal opened in 1834 and the PRR acquired the terminal in 1871. The terminal was rebuilt twice, first in 1876 and, again, in 1888 to 1892.

The PRR ferries crossed the Hudson from the terminal to the railroad’s ferry terminal at Courtland Street.

Even though New York’s Pennsylvania’s station opened in 1910, the railroad continued to operate trains into and out of the Exchange Place, Jersey City terminal until 1961. The terminal and the surrounding tracks were demolished in 1963.

Heading north, the next complex was the Weehawken Terminal that opened in 1884. The complex included five ferry slips, sixteen train tracks, car float facilities and extensive yards. The principal users were the New York Central’s (NYC) West Shore Railroad and the New York, Ontario and Western Railway.

Ferry service that operated from the terminal to Cortland Street ended on March 25, 1959 when the Weehawken ended 259 years of continuous ferry service. Train service ceased the same day.

The Hoboken Terminal is the most northern of the ferry terminals, it is also the newest, built in 1911, the only survivor of the five facilities and… “is considered a milestone in American transportation combining rail, ferry subway, streetcar and pedestrian services.”

Granted the light rail and the ferry service are light years away from the original trolleys and steam ferries that served the terminal in olden days. Those trolleys stopped running in 1949 and the ferry service that operated between Hoboken and Cortland Street stopped running in 1959 and between Hoboken and Barclay Street in 1967.

New Jersey Transit operates today’s light rail service and New York Waterways, the passenger ferries. The Erie-Lackawanna Railroad went bankrupt in June of 1972 and a court ordered their commuter operations to be assumed by newly formed ConRail. ConRail disputed the court’s ruling and did nothing to improve service. Finally, the state of New Jersey had enough and on January 1, 1983, NJ Transit took over all commuter lines within the state.

Today, Hoboken terminal serves eight NJ Transit commuter lines and one Metro North railroad line. The terminal has been completely renovated and retains its classic features including the large Lackawanna R.R. sign facing the entrance on the land side, the seven ferry slips (although unused) and the railroad waiting room.

This little used waiting room leads to a large space nearly 500 feet long and 30 feet wide that originally connected the ferry slips to the terminal. The room offers views of New York City extending from the harbor to the George Washington Bridge. Planning is still developing to decide what to do with this unique space. What ever is decided should only enhance this treasure of by-gone American railroading when trains were the life-blood of our nation.

“On the Outside Looking In” will not publish next week but will return on September 9.                 

I have before me two remarkably clear photographs taken during the first year that I had a season ticket to the New York Football Giants. They were both shot from the closed end of Yankee Stadium looking out toward the outfield bleachers on October 21, 1962 when the Giants hosted the Detroit Lions. 

Since the New York Yankees, as expected, made it to the World Series where they beat the San Francisco Giants, this was only the second home game of the 1962 season. The Giants opened on the road losing to the Cleveland Browns and beating the Eagles, Steelers and Cardinals before their first game in Yankee Stadium. That Sunday they lost their home opener to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 20-17. The following Sunday, the Lions came into this game with a record of 4 and 1 having beaten the Steelers, 49ers, Colts and Rams but having lost to their rival Green Bay Packers, 9-7.

It was a beautiful autumn afternoon, a perfect day for football. The game’s starting time of 2:05 pm was in deference to the New York’s blue laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol including beer before 1 pm on Sundays. This allowed Harry M Stevens, the stadium’s concessionaire, an hour and change lead time prior to kickoff for selling his frothy beverages to the sell-out crowd.

(This was near the end of individual teams deciding on their own starting time for games. The League pressured the Giants to convert to 1:00 starting times. Both the team and the league convinced the New York State to change the time allowing the sale of alcohol to noon.)

Both photos feature wonderful shots of the bleachers’ crowds basking in the mild October weather. It is mostly male and white as it would be today but it reflects the dress standards of the time. While a good number are in shirtsleeves, the men wear what we would call today, business shirts. Others have on jackets, some wear ties and some, hats too. Not baseball caps, coverings that we used to call fedoras.

The two photographs are remarkably clear as they were shot using Kodachrome film. One shows people sitting on the field. The band in maroon uniforms sits behind the end zone in left field. In the one showing the Coca-Cola sign, fans sit on folding chairs in front of the monuments in center field. This was where the Giants arranged for people in wheelchairs to watch the game and most of the people in folding chairs were their companions. Other people watch from the Jerome Avenue elevated station above that same Coca-Cola sign. This prized perch was by invitation exclusively on a “who you knew” basis from some unknown Transit supervisor. Eventually other fans would find their way to the rooftops of the buildings rising above and behind the train station.

The first photograph shows an ordinary pass play. Y.A. Tittle (14), the Giants quarterback is setting up to throw what could be a screen pass to Joe Morrison (40) who is moving to his left. Ahead of Morrison, tackle, Rosey Brown (79) zones in on the Lions outside linebacker, Wayne Walker (55). Behind them, middle linebacker, Joe Schmidt (56) is tracking Morrison but tackle, Roger Brown (76) seems to be holding back. Defensive end, Sam Williams (88) is charging Tittle unimpeded up the middle having beaten the block by Giants guard, Darrell Dess (62) while halfback, Phil King (24) and tackle, Jack Stroud (66) double-team an unidentified player, probably Alex Karras (71). Giants tight end, Joe Walton (80) is peeling off to the right on his pass route under the watchful eye of corner back, Dick Lebeau (44) while outside linebacker, Carl Brettschneider (57) makes his rush from the Tittle’s blind side having beaten Giants center, Greg Larson (53).

In the second photograph, Y.A. Tittle has taken the snap from center, turned and is just pitching the ball back toward Phil King who has begun moving forward. Ahead, full back, Alex Webster (29), Greg Larson and Darrell Dess, (both partially obscured) also move forward to block for King. So does Rosey Brown cutting toward the center from his left tackle position. Off to the left, Giants end, Aaron Thomas (88) sprints away from the play in an effort to freeze Lions safety, Yale Larry (28). The defensive end, Sam Williams (88) reacts to the play by charging in from the left while Joe Schmidt and Darris McCord (78) have yet to react.

Two marvelous photographs showing two ordinary plays taken on a sunny afternoon at the big ballpark in The Bronx that the Giants won 17-14 giving the Lions their second defeat of the season.

Despite gaining revenge on the Packers later in the season on Thanksgiving by smothering them 26-14, that was the only loss Green Bay would endure in 1962 finishing 13-1. The Lions finished second in the West with an 11-3 record losing the last game of the season in Chicago, 3-0.

The Giants didn’t lose again winning the NFL Eastern Division with a record of 12-2, but lost to the Packers in the NFL Championship Game with the score of 16-10 in a frigid and wind-swept Yankee Stadium on December 30^th. 

(On The Outside Looking In will not publish next week, but will return on August 27.) 

This piece was Ria Meade’s favorite of all the stories I read in class. I re-issue it in her honor.

“Call me Buster.”

 I am a seven-year-old mixed breed part Chow / part Border Collie with brown and black hair. I have pointy ears that I can turn 180 degrees that would make me a lousy poker player as how I set my ears gives away my mood. Let me tell you about my first trip to Florida.

Before we left, I had my hair cut. This was not my idea as January was cold and wet. When they did this to me. I thought that Mary Ann and John, the people I live with, were trying to kill me, but the next day we set out in their truck on a road trip that would take us to a special place, called Florida, where the weather is nice and warm in January.

I didn’t always live with them. A girl named Jodie, who I adored, adopted me from the North Shore Animal’s League’s shelter. She took me home to Connecticut. Later, she married their son, Michael. It was not a bad life until they had this kid. Didn’t like him, but food became more plentiful once he arrived. Then he became mobile and interested in me. A couple of bites later, it was goodbye Fairfield, and hello Port Washington, Long Island.

My life in this new home would have been much better if they didn’t already have Maggie living with them too. She arrived a year before I did, in 1999, another reject.

 She was thrown out of her home because she was a crazy ten-month-old Golden Retriever. Now five, she’s still nuts, and she’s a pain in my ass. Stupid Golden Retrievers think they are so special and this one thinks she is “The Supreme Being.” The fools I live with, especially, John, treat her that way.

You don’t believe me? She uses toys as props, rubber footballs, a rubber ring, a rope and especially tennis balls. She obsesses over her toys and God forbid, I borrow one, the bitch takes it away. Now toys are not a big deal for me, but fair is fair.

She also hogs the window in the back seat. She stands there waiting for them to open it, so she can put her stupid head out. And when they do, God forbid, I go over to it. She growls and snarls at me. It can get so bad on this trip that I said the hell with it and found a spot in the back of the truck. Mary Ann was nice enough to find a mat for me to lie on while “her majesty” had the entire soft seat to herself.

Spending eight hours in a truck every day for three days is not as bad as you think. It isn’t as though I had other things to do and we stopped often enough to stretch and relieve ourselves. Sleeping in those little boxy rooms was another matter altogether. There are too many strangers, each one a potential assassin. I was ready to stay up all night and let them know I was on alert, but John stupidly closed the curtains.

When we arrived at the house in Florida, I had to learn a few things the hard way. Glass sliding doors are not always open and what happens when I walk across the plastic cover on top of the swimming pool. My only pleasure was watching her majesty do the same thing.

Each morning we hopped in the truck for a short ride to the beach. As soon as we began to move, Maggie began to act up. Her ears flailed back making her look like a bolting horse. Her eyes blinked rapidly as her tongue moved in and out of her mouth at the same speed. She whimpered and cried. When she saw the water, the Loony Tune’s barking and crying became so high-pitched that it went right through me. It was all I could do not to bite her so she’d shut up. This cacophony ended only after John let her out of the truck. And this happened every morning!

The beach was great. Not many people, a few new dogs to meet and greet. Most of the time we ran free and I had a grand time cataloging new and different smells, rolling on dead creatures and playing in the surf. On the other hand, “nutsy Fagin” had to have something to chase and carry in her big mouth. Each morning, John found a different coconut that he would throw into the water. Maggie mindlessly chased them.

Her nuttiness gave me the idea that if I chased them too, that might drive her off the deep end. After I grabbed the coconut first a couple of times, she freaked out and started ripping it out of my mouth. After that I decided to back off and let her have it.

 John threw the coconut like a football, but its weight and the wind made some throws fall short. It was my fondest hope that sooner or later one would hit her on the head and kill her. (Imagine John having to call his kids to tell them what happened.)

Don’t get in an uproar, it didn’t happen. Actually, it was an excellent vacation with no mishaps after the first day. Neither of us went swimming in the bayou behind the house because the bottom was too muddy, and our instincts sensed danger. Good thing too because we found out alligators liked to swim there.

 We also avoided fleas and I had to smile because last year Maggie acquired fleas on the trip I missed.

So, you can put me down to recommending Florida as a good place to go to leave winter behind, but it would be much better to go there as an Only Dog.