WALK the WALKWAY Jersey City August 1, 2010
On Sunday, 5 walkers completed a walk that took over 3.5 hours from the Hoboken Train Station to the Liberty State Park Train Station. About 10:45 we departed from the Hoboken terminal and by 1:00 pm we were "on-time" at the Goldman Sachs building. The good news is that with one small exception in Newport, the Walkway is complete, functional and largely well maintained throughout Jersey City. The bad news is that the walk around Morris Canal to get to Liberty State Park is extremely difficult. Generally, there are very few HRWC signs along the Walkway. However, it is quite easy to follow the Walkway through the city. There is Walkway signage within the Hoboken Train Terminal but it is very hard to see as it blends into the background colors of the terminal and the lighting in the Terminal is very poor. Normal red white and blue Walkway signs would be easier to locate. The single "gap" in the downtown section of the JC Walkway is one undeveloped pier just after the new Lefrak Bridge between Hoboken and JC. It appears that the Walkway will be built on the pier out to the water when this land is developed. The Port Authority land over the Holland Tunnel has heavy steel gates at either end of the Walkway There was no evidence that these gates are used to block the Walkway. We assumed they were there for emergencies. In Jersey City, there is a pier that is now used as a dock for NY Waterways in the Newport area. The pier has signs that it is a fishing pier and there are recreational facilities, basketball courts, etc. on the pier. However, the pier was fenced in and closed and it appears that it is only open during weekdays when the ferry is running. It is not clear if the fishing area is open during the week, At 6th Street there is a small connection, maybe 30 feet, where the Walkway consists of a blacktop temporary path. It is not clear who is responsible for this small area, Newport or someone else, and if actual Walkway will be built here. The Walkway is now complete and open at Crystal Point. However, there are no benches or trash cans and the bollard lights are not complete. Owen Grundy Park at Exchange Place has now been refurbished and is a magnificent facility with pavilions, many seats and facilities for fishing. The pier at Goldman Sachs for Ferry service and the helicopter pad are completed and Bill was thrilled to see that the Helicopter pad was built away for the pier as he had recommended rather than on the pier itself. So at 1:00 PM we were all feeling good and we started to trek around Morris Canal to return to Liberty State Park. The Walkway exists only on scattered pieces of property in this area, and the path is not marked. We made several long walks into dead ends where we had to retrace our steps. Most of this land is owned by Liberty Harbor. It took us another 90 minutes to get from Goldman Sachs to our cars at Liberty State Park. The next segment of the Walk the Walkway is scheduled for August 29 when we will walk the Hoboken and Weehawken segments.