Page:History of Hudson County and of the Old Village of Bergen.djvu/45



HE first important changes in Bergen and its surrounding territory were brought by the development of transportation, and this development was due chiefly to the rapidly growing business between New York and Philadelphia. Stage route terminals on the North River meant short ferriage as against the bay ferriage involved in the alternative New Brunswick-Amboy-Staten Island route. The thoughtful ferrymen of Paulus Hook did not permit the public to remain blind to it. Their advertisements are full of humane warnings against the "Dangers of the Bay."

It was not a trifling consideration in the days before steam, when even the river ferriage was an adventure. The first river ferries were rowing skiffs or, more simply, canoes of hollowed soft wood logs. The river was no more tranquil than it is now and its width was far greater, for today there are parts on both shores where more than a thousand feet have been filled in. As late as 1816, the mail was carried across in rowboats, and we have a dramatic narrative of a twenty-four hours' battle to rescue a mail carrier and his negro boatman from the ice-pack. Another narrative, not so well authenticated, but so pleasing that it ought to be true, is that of a Dutch planter and his wife who were in mid-stream when "a large fish leaped into their skiff" and knocked a hole into it. With admirable intelligence the honestly built wife sat on the critical spot and by virtue of