Exchange Place (PRR station)

Pennsylvania Railroad Station
Passenger Railroad Terminal Ferry Terminal
Pennsylvania Railroad's Jersey City Station, 1893
Coordinates	40°42′59″N 74°01′57″W / 40.71648°N 74.03238°W / 40.71648; -74.03238Coordinates: 40°42′59″N 74°01′57″W / 40.71648°N 74.03238°W / 40.71648; -74.03238
Operated by	Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR)
Connections
History
Opened	1834 (1834)
Closed	1961 (1961)
Services
Preceding station   Pennsylvania Railroad   Following station Newark toward Chicago Main Line Terminus Summit Avenue toward Bay Head Junction New York and Long Branch Railroad
Location
Pennsylvania Railroad Station Location on a map showing the railroads on the Hudson Waterfront ca 1900

The Pennsylvania Railroad Station was the intermodal passenger terminal for the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) vast holdings on the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey. By the 1920s the station was called Exchange Place in response to local nomenclature. The rail terminal and its ferry slips were the main New York City station for the railroad until the opening in 1910 of New York Penn Station, made possible by the construction of the North River Tunnels. The terminal was located on Paulus Hook, which in 1812 became the landing of the first steam ferry service in the world, and to which rail service began in 1834. Train service to the station ended in November 1961 and demolition of the building complex was completed in 1963. Part of the former terminal complex is now the PATH system's Exchange Place Station.

The station was one of five passenger railroad terminals that lined the western shore of the Hudson River during the 19th and 20th centuries, the others being Weehawken, Hoboken, Pavonia, and Communipaw.

Ferry service between Paulus Hook and Manhattan began in 1812, the first steam ferry service in the world. The New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company opened a rail line from Paulus Hook, then part of the newly incorporated City of Jersey, west to Newark in 1834. The PRR acquired the railroad in 1871 and replaced the terminal in 1876 and yet again in 1888-1892. Passengers could move directly between the trains and ferries without going outside. The railroad referred to the location simply as "Jersey City," and if necessary to distinguish it from other railroads' terminals, as the Pennsylvania station.