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So...what do you with pristine marshland between the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers in the early 20th century? Build lots of toxic chemical plants and one of most hideous bridges ever conceived by man. Simply brilliant! Jersey City. circa 1925
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Strip away all the modern expensive tall apartment buildings, simulated 19th century brownstone condos, Goldman Sachs headquarters, the Hudson River walkway, Morris Canal Park and you've got the REAL Jersey City waterfront. July 1986
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Yet more desolation in Jersey City to explore. At one time, these were Lehigh Valley trainyards at Black Tom Island. In 1916, this was the site of hundreds of massive explosions of stored WW 1 munitions caused by German saboteurs. It never recovered. 1975
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Let's spend a day in Liberty State Park... well, not quite. Where the free parking lot exists today, once stood the Central Railroad of New Jersey's train maintenance plant. It was directly across from the CRRNJ terminal. Jersey City. March 1972
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Welcome to the Jersey City hinterlands, 1998 style. A low-res shot of Johnston Ave from Cornelison Ave, just a few blocks south of the old Medical Center. At one time, a heavily industrialized area but gentrification hadn't reached this part of town yet.
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Yet more fun in the old days. I wonder what drivers on the Turnpike thought of this utter wasteland so close to NYC? Ruins of the Central Railroad of NJ north roundhouse, a power plant and an office building. Ghetto palm tree heaven. Jersey City. 1975.
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The Twin Towers hover over a swampy wilderness in Liberty State Park on a foggy, misty, ethereal morning. Jersey City. March 1991
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Liberty State Park - kind of, sort of. A RARE view before any facilities were built. All the CRRNJ tracks had been removed. Random bushes and pine trees grew in what was then very polluted soil from a century of railroad use. Jersey City. Aug 1979
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A pile of colorful junked cars lays scattered in the Hoboken Auto Body lot as seen from the Jersey City Heights near Observer Highway. Lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center hover in the background. Sept 1978
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More Jersey City fun back in the day. Vast swaths of nothing but junk-filled lots and a few ancient factories. The NJ Turnpike slices through the view. Taken from near Cornelison Ave by Johnston Ave. World Trade Center in the distance. Nov 1977.
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Some people love it and others view it an ugly blight on the landscape. The Pulaski Skyway with 1970s cars on a typically smoggy day. The Kearny Generation Station from 1925 was still in use and burning coal. Jersey City. Nov 1977
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OK, car guys. Here were have a Kodachrome shot of a junkyard on the banks of the Morris Canal in Jersey City, taken in May 1974. How many of these squashed vintage beauties can YOU identify?
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Going nowhere fast. Remnants of the Central Railroad of New Jersey tracks being overtaken by hardy reeds and other plants. A crane graveyard and the skyline of Lower Manhattan loom in the background. Jersey City. March 1976.
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Strip away all the tall modern apartments, stores, condominiums, corporate headquarters and you have the old post-industrial version of Jersey City. Taken from the 58th floor of the World Trade Center North Tower. March 1975
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The 19th century Colgate plant near the Hudson River on a cloudy, moody and rainy day. Generations of people worked here making soap and toothpaste. Not a trace of it exists now. Manhattan and the World Trade Center at left. Jersey City. Sept 1984
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Low resolution bleak wasteland by the abandoned Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal. The World Trade Center and Lower Manhattan hover across the Hudson. Jersey City. March 1976.
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Abandoned factories and an urban wilderness line the shore of the Morris Canal from Washington Street. The World Trade Center and Lower Manhattan hover across the Hudson. Jersey City. Aug 1981.
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Walked over to the window of my Dad's office on the 58th floor of the World Trade Center, pulled away the curtain and saw this. New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the abandoned shoreline of Jersey City. Feb 1977
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A lone seagull flies between the distant World Trade Center and the weedy, vine covered abandoned parking lot of Roosevelt Stadium on the western outskirts of Jersey City near the Hackensack River. July 1983
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Welcome to the Exchange Place PATH station. 35 cents gets you to the World Trade Center and all the way up to 33rd Street. This place had a unique scent of urine, electricity, and the seeping smell of the polluted Hudson River. Jersey City. March 1975
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Spending a gorgeous day in Liberty State Park and beating the weekend crowd by arriving 43 years too early when the place was still REALLY fascinating! A horizon to horizon landscape of total abandonment and decay. Jersey City. Aug 1977
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A foggy, misty morning at the Hoboken Erie Lackawanna Terminal looking at the tracks from the very end of one the passenger platforms where nobody ever ventured. I still recall the smell of diesel and machine oil which permeated the place. March 1975
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More Jersey City views from the good old days. The scene from the end of Henderson Street (Marin Boulevard) by the Morris Canal shows a wasteland of garbage and weeds. Occupants of old 19th century tenements have a prime view of all this. April 1976
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A foggy, misty morning at the Hoboken Erie Lackawanna Terminal looking at one of the abandoned 19th century ferry slips. I still recall the brackish scent of the Hudson River and moist, moldy smell of old wet wood when this shot was taken. March 1975
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Abandoned pier hovers over the Hudson River near the New Jersey Central Railroad terminal in Jersey City. The Liberty State Park walkway is here now. This mass of twisted steel was so large, you could see it from the World Trade Center. Nov 1975
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Kind of like an alternative reality postcard. A still from a Super 8 film showing the abandoned Harsimus Cove Pennsylvania Railroad yard several blocks north of Exchange Place. The Lower Manhattan skyline hovers in the background. Jersey City. April 1976
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Remnants of the old wooden Caven Point Pier reached almost all the way to the Statue of Liberty from the industrial wastelands of the shoreline in Jersey City. Taken from the Statue ferry on the way back to New York. April 1972
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A rare view of the EARLY version of Liberty State Park. All vestiges of its railroad and industrial history were wiped clean, except for the restored Central Railroad of New Jersey terminal. The park looks much nicer now. Jersey City. April 1982
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Way before all the luxury riverside towers, condos and corporate headquarters, the shoreline of Jersey City looked quite different. This rare aerial photo shows the city in its industrial heyday during the railroad era. 1924
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End of civilization as we know it. Forty years after the worldwide plague finally subsided, only the most primitive, hardiest weeds and bushes were capable of survival.
