The Paulus Hook Ferry, the Last Leg of the Journey to Freedom

In 1834, fugitives hiding in wagons could take a route across the Meadowlands from Newark to Manhattan. By taking the Belleville Turnpike to Belleville, then crossing the Passaic River Bridge, a corduroy road causeway led to the Hackensack drawbridge and then into Paulus Hook (modern Jersey City). Paulus Hook had the world’s first steam ferry from Paulus Hook to the Mesier Docks on Cortland Street in Manhattan in 1812. It was about a fifteen-minute ride to freedom in New York City. From there, fugitives could make connections to cross into Canada or other places where they could live in freedom.

To cross the Meadowlands, the turnpike companies built a corduroy road to mitigate the wetland conditions. Road builders looked for slightly higher natural ridges, marsh islands, and firmer ground along creek banks. Next, they created a raised embankment between these higher points, then dumped earth, sand, clay, brush, sod, and marsh vegetation to build up the low ridge. The workers created a large mat cover made of branches, brushwood, and small saplings to spread the wagons’ weight over a wider area. Atop the mat, workers laid large logs horizontally across the road, creating a ridged surface resembling corduroy fabric. Where possible, they added more earth or sand between and over the logs. To keep the causeway from acting as a dam, workers inserted small wooden bridges and timber culverts to allow water to pass through.

Travelers described the corduroy roads as bone-jarring, but better than being mired in mud. A plank road boom began in the 1840s and carried on through the early to mid-1850s. It was a smoother and faster route between farms, canals, railroads, and markets. Legal battles delayed the conversion of the log road into the Newark Plank Road until 1849.