Cortland Street Ferry Depot

Cortland Street Ferry Depot was the main ferry terminal for passengers of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the West Shore Railroad traveling to and from lower Manhattan. Both railroads operated ferries from the ferry slips at the depot to their stations in New Jersey, at Exchange Place and Weehawken, respectively. The depot was next to Liberty Street Ferry Terminal from which the Central Railroad of New Jersey operated its Communipaw ferry to Communipaw Terminal.

As early as July 1764 a ferry began operating from Paulus Hook to Mesier's dock which was located at the foot of Courtland Street (where Cortland Street Ferry Depot would be built). Almost immediately and for several decades subsequently, a complicated series of legal battles broke out over who should operate the ferries, where the crossing(s) should be located and at what rate passengers and other cargo should be charged for the journey.

The first steam ferry service in the world began in 1812 between Paulus Hook and Manhattan and reduced the journey time to a then remarkable 14 minutes. With the arrival of the railroad station at Paulus Hook in 1834 and the arrival of the Morris and Essex Railroad service on October 14, 1836 the number of passengers and the value of the Jersey City Ferry continued to increase.

The terminal was located one block west of the Ninth Avenue Elevated's Cortland Street Station which operated from 1874 until 1940.

The Jersey City Ferry slip at the foot of Courtlandt Street, ca. 1860

Cortland and Liberty Street Ferries, ca. 1882

The New Brunswick one of the Pennsylvania Railroad's ferries across the Hudson,ca. 1905

Cortland Street Ferry Depot is visible underneath a pedestrian overpass at Liberty Street Ferry Terminal, 1938

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