Weehawken Hoboken 2012

WALK the WALKWAY
Weehawken and Hoboken – October 14, 2012

On a cool, overcast morning, 18 walkers including 3 members of the Board of the Hudson River Waterfront Conservancy (HRWC) met at 9:30 AM at the Weehawken 9/11 Memorial. Most walkers had walked with us before but several joined us for the first time.

Don Stitzenberg welcomed the group, described the route for the day noting that the Walkway was largely completed in Weehawken and Hoboken.

After a brief look at the 9/11 Memorial, the group headed south past the Brownstone Townhouses, multi million dollar condos with a perfect view of midtown Manhattan. The Brownstones are another excellent example where access to the Waterfront via the Walkway can be successfully integrated with high-end residential development.

South of the Brownstones, construction of Henley on Hudson condominiums is being completed. The Walkway here was completed several years ago as a requirement of the initial development approval. This provided the public with full access to the Walkway several years before the actual Condominiums were constructed. Next is Weehawken Park where soccer fields, little league fields, tennis courts and a variety of other facilities have been built by developers as part of the redevelopment of the Weehawken waterfront. The park and the Walkway are not complete and future construction will include an outdoor pool, skating rink and boat launching facility.

Passing the recently completed Baldwin Ave interchange, the group entered Lincoln Harbor, a private community developed by Hartz Mountain. Again the Walkway has been completed years ago even though new construction of apartments just began several months ago.

Passing Lincoln Harbor, the group walked the recently completed Walkway at Weehawken Cove connecting Weehawken and Hoboken. This area of the Walkway was funded by the State, County and Municipalities of Weehawken and Hoboken. Part of the Walkway is built over the water. This is allowed only where previous piers have existed.

Entering Hoboken, the walk passed the Hudson Tea, Shipyard and Maxwell Place condominiums. Each of these developments is a reconstructed manufacturing site which had been abandoned in earlier years. The Maxwell Place development includes a large riverfront park and also a small natural sand beach and boat house.

Leaving Maxwell Place, the walk proceeded on Sinatra Drive in order to bypass Union Dry Dock, the last working dry dock facility on the Hudson River. Future development of this facility will allow the Walkway to be completed in Hoboken. The remainder of the Walkway in Hoboken is complete but sections are not usable due to a collapse of the bulkhead in two areas of the Walkway. These areas are under reconstruction by Hoboken but a completion date is unknown. Due to these collapsed areas, the recently completed Walkway section built by Stevens University is closed to the public.

Passing two magnificent parks built by NJ Transit at Pier A and Pier C, the Walk ended at noon the Hoboken Train station where the Walkway actually goes directly through the Station and connects to the Walkway leading to Jersey City.

Having walked 4 miles, the Walkers used the Light Rail to return to the starting point in Weehawken.