Chambers Street Ferry Terminal

The terminal was one of several operated by ferry companies and railroads that lined the western shore of Manhattan during the 19th and 20th centuries.

[1] A January 18, 1903, letter from a Passaic, New Jersey reader to The New York Times, commented about the inadequacy of the boats of the Pavonia Ferry, which was then the property of the Erie Railroad.

The vessels then in use by the Erie Railroad, listed with first year of service, were Pavonia (1861), Susquehanna (1865), Delaware (1868), Chatauqua (1868), Passaic (1869), Ridgewood (1873), Paterson (1886), and J.G.

[2] It was not until 1910 with the opening of New York Tunnel Extension that rail service underneath the Hudson River was achieved and several railroads had ferry terminals on the west side of Manhattan (e.g. the Central Railroad of New Jersey's Liberty Street Ferry Terminal) so that their passengers could travel between New York City and their stations in New Jersey.

[3] Following a decline in passenger rail travel during the post-war years, the Erie Railroad closed its station at Pavonia in 1958 and on December 12, 1958 the last ferry left from Chambers Street Ferry Terminal.