Shippen Street (Weehawken)

Shippen Street

The second hairpin turn on Shippen Street
Part of	CR 682
Namesake	William W. Shippen
Owner	Township of Weehawken
Maintained by	Weehawken Public Works
Length	0.32 mi (0.51 km)
Location	Weehawken
Coordinates	40°45′54″N 74°01′32″W / 40.76500°N 74.02556°W / 40.76500; -74.02556Coordinates: 40°45′54″N 74°01′32″W / 40.76500°N 74.02556°W / 40.76500; -74.02556
West end	CR 685 (Palisade Avenue) in Weehawken
East end	CR 691 (Hackensack Plank Road) in Weehawken
North	Dodd Street
South	Oak Street

Shippen Street is an east-west street in Weehawken, New Jersey. The eastern terminal, a cobblestone double hairpin turn is listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places. Shippen Street was developed at the start of the 20th century as part of the Weehawken Heights, one the town's residential neighborhoods.

At its western end, Shippen Street begins at Palisade Avenue, where over the city line in Union City it is now known as 24th Street, and creates the northern border for Elsworth Park, a city square from the 19th century. The two-way street gradually descends as it is intersected first by northbound Hudson Avenue and then southbound Gregory Avenue. At its eastern end, the street provides a view of the Lincoln Tunnel Approach and Helix and, directly across the North River, of the Empire State Building and New York Skyline. Shippen Street then becomes an eastbound one-way street that ends at Hackensack Plank Road. In its entirety, the street is about 1690 feet.

Shippen Street was named after William W. Shippen, who owned large properties in Weehawken Heights adjacent to those in West Hoboken belonging to the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, of which he was the president for 21 years. A prominent German immigrant population in the area during the late 19th century housed large groups of anarchists; saloons could be found in several locations within the Union Hill area. The largest assembly hall, The New Casino was on Shippen Street. Although it now ends at Palisades, in the past the name Shippen Street was used at least as far as Central Avenue, where it was once proposed by the city government and townspeople to utilize a 200-foot shaft used in the construction of the railroad tunnels as a stop to provide North Hudson's then 130,000 residents within the mile radius of the shaft with transportation to the Pennsylvania Station being constructed in Manhattan. In 1904, the Geological Society surveyed the area, but ultimately no stop was made on Shippen Street. A few years later in 1907, 125 men working in the North River Tunnels were forced to evacuate through the Shippen Street opening when tar paper used for waterproofing became ignited. Eleven men were unaccounted for upon the initial count; they were found 500 feet from the shaft at Shippen alive but unconscious, and had apparently survived by inhaling oxygen through a compressed air pipe which they hacked through. Although some were hospitalized with serious injury, none were reported dead.