Page:From canoe to tunnel.djvu/5

 FROM CANOE TO TUNNEL.

A Sketch of the History of Transportation between Jersey City and New York.

1661-1909.

Now that "Three Minutes from Broadway" has become an assured fact, and the traveller to New York may take his choice between the luxurious coaches of the Hudson Tunnel system or the palatial steamboats of the various ferry lines, it is difficult to appreciate the discomforts and dangers of the trip in former times. The history of the transportation facilities between Jersey City and New York shows a steady but slow improvement. The canoes of the Indians and the rowboats of the first settlers were followed by the queer sailing boats of the early Dutch inhabitants, called "periaugers." These were used until the early part of the nineteenth century, when they were superseded by the steam ferry boats introduced by Fulton. For years, however, these were little better than the old sail boats, but they gradually improved, changing to the side wheel steamers and these again to the magnificent screw propelled vessels which now ply the waters of the Hudson and are probably the finest river ferry boats in the world. These had scarcely become familiar objects when the long dreamed of tunnel beneath the Hudson became a reality.

The first ferry between the present cities of Jersey City and New York, of which there is any record, was established near what is now the foot of Communipaw avenue, in 1661, and William Jansen was licensed to take charge of it. The boats used in these early ferries were rowboats, and small decked sailboats, known as "periaugers." These were pointed at both ends and carried two masts and boom sails. When horses and carriages were to be taken across they were detached and lifted into the boat. Jansen was the ferryman for eight years, but there seems to have been considerable trouble between him and the inhabitants. He claimed the exclusive right to ferry people over the river and insisted that they had no legal right even to use their own boats to cross over in. The settlers resisted this claim and also complained that the ferryman did not do his duty. Jansen on the other hand claimed that the people refused to pay. The matter was laid before the authorities at New Amsterdam, and judgment was rendered "that the Sheriff must assist the ferryman in getting his pay and that he must do his duty or be dismissed."