Erie Railroad Terminal
Terminal located at the eastern end of Pavonia Avenue at the Hudson River

Detail of the 1850 Dripps Map of Jersey City showing the Long Dock at the eastern end of Pavonia Avenue. Courtesy, Jersey City Free Public Library

Early twentieth century postcard of Erie Railroad trains and tunnels.
Courtesy, Jersey City Free Public Library

The Erie Railroad began in 1851 in order to link the Great Lakes region and the Atlantic seacoast by train. After its development in the State of New York at communities like Piermont and Nyack, the Erie Railroad began to reach south through New Jersey to Jersey City for the eventual construction of an eastern terminus. This route became known as the Northern Branch. It went through towns in Bergen and Hudson Counties with over sixty trains a day by the late nineteenth century.

Reaching Jersey City, the railroad's goal was to cross the Hudson River to lower Manhattan with a ferry route. A ferry service between Chambers Street and Jersey City had started in 1854 and was purchased by the Erie Railroad in 1864.

By the 1870s, the railroad was controlled by the noted financiers Daniel Drew, Jay Gould, and James Fisk of America's Gilded Age. When New York railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt tried to gain control of the Erie by cornering its stock, Drew, Gould and Fisk issued fifty thousand shares of the railroad stock to flood the market. After a New York court issued an arrest warrant, the three men reportedly left for a hotel in Jersey City. Gould, it is said, bribed the New York legislature to legalize their action; Fisk and Gould then came to an agreement with Vanderbilt, and the railroad remained in their control. Although a major northeastern railway line during its time, the financial history of the company reveals that the railroad went into bankruptcy four times during its existence,

After the stock episode and economic depression of 1873, the Erie Railroad built a second Jersey City terminal in the Pavonia section. The terminal was built between 1886 and 1889 after the Erie Railroad completed its "cut" through the Palisades from the Hackensack River to the Hudson River. Because of its location on the waterfront, it was constructed on pilings of wood. The Pavonia Station is described as "brightly colored and styled in a Gothic image." The three-story terminal had a taller square tower at the corner that was topped by clocks on two sides and a widow's walk above. The waiting room facing the tracks was 66 feet by 1000 feet.

The operation of the Erie Railroad continued into the post-World War II era. In 1951 its main line extended from Jersey City to Chicago with branches to Scranton, Pennsylvania, Rochester and Buffalo, New York, and Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio. However, due to changes in passenger and commercial transportation, the last train to depart from Jersey City's Pavonia Station was the Northern Branch train #1205 at 6:35 p.m., Friday, December 12, 1958.

In 1960 the Erie Railroad merged with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroads. The decision to use Hoboken as the eastern terminus after the merger meant the demise of the terminal in Jersey City. It was razed in 1961. However, the track remained intact to Piermont, and it brought passengers to Jersey City and serviced the Continental Can Company until it closed in the late 1970s. Its freight yards are part of the North Jersey City waterfront redevelopment near the Port Authority's PATH Railroad Pavonia Station.