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America's
Most Endangered River
The
Upper Delaware
Gas drilling cited as major threat
* New
York Will Probably Restart Review Process on Fracking
* Nationwide
Insurance: Fracking Damage Won't Be Covered
* Highland
is the latest town to ban fracking
* Chesapeake
settles lawsuit over contaminated water in Pa.
* Second
state judge says towns can ban hydrofracking
Pennsylvanians
choose Delaware as 2011 River of the Year
Gas
drilling makes the Susquehanna River #1 on 2011 most
endangered rivers list
News
Headline Archive
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Port
Jervis, NY, 12771
Introduction
Port
Jervis, New York, is located on the scenic
upper
Delaware river where
the states of New
York, Pennsylvania,
and New
Jersey meet (see maps here
).
Claiming
a population shown by the 2010 U.S. Census as slightly
less than
9,000, this small city is
further situated on the western border of Orange
County, one of
New York's original counties and whose founding dates back
to 1683.
The
current city of Port Jervis was once part of the still
surrounding Town
of Deerpark which was itself
established in 1798. After incorporating as a
village in 1853, and later being legally divided from the
Town of Deerpark, in 1907 Port Jervis became a city.
On
its New Jersey side, Port Jervis abuts Montague
Township while its Pennsylvania
neighbor across the Delaware River is Westfall
Township.
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History
It
is said that prior to the arrival of the first Europeans
in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Port Jervis was
known as "Magagkamack,"
which is a Lenni-Lenape
(Delaware Indian) phrase that
has been interpreted as "pumpkin field" or
"land covered in grass." It was in the
general vicinity of Port Jervis that a sub-group of the
Lenape, the Munsee, made their traditional seat of
government.
Because
of its location and waterways, which also includes the
mouth of the Neversink
river, Port Jervis has long been a transportation hub.
Begun
in 1825, the Delaware
and Hudson Canal was the
nation's first million dollar private venture and it
crossed Port Jervis as did what is sometimes described as
the oldest
100 mile commercial road in America. It
is after John
B. Jervis, one of the D & H
Canal's principal engineers, that the city is
named.
Because mining
and transportation of coal was the reason the D
& H canal was built an accomplishment of the city's namesake related to that work was
designing the
first steam engine locomotive ever
to run in the United States.
Consistent
with its geography and prominence in early 19th century
transportation, Port Jervis also became an important
railroad center and still has
one of the region's few remaining steam
engine turntables.
Perhaps
the most famous of Port Jervis citizens was the acclaimed
author of the Red Badge of Courage, Stephen
Crane, who started school here
at age six. The inspiration for that novel and other
of his works held associations to Port Jervis where he
stayed with his brother
William, wrote articles in the
local newspaper, and would return for much of his
adult life.
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Useful
Links
Today,
commuter rail service to points east and south, -
including New York City - is provided by New
Jersey Transit. Additional
connections can be made by Amtrak
in Manhattan's Penn Station and through the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority, of
which Metro-North
Railroad is part.
The following
link provides the location of and directions to the
Port
Jervis train station. Also see: Walking
Directions from the New Jersey Transit Train Platform to Front
Street, Sussex Street, and the Delaware River.
Transportation
by CoachUSA|Shortline
Bus service is available
with connections at the Port
Authority Bus Terminal.
Interstate
Route 84 and New Jersey's
Route
23 are found at the city's
southeastern border.
Likewise,
both Stewart
International Airport and the
New
York State Thruway (I-87) can be
reached by a convenient 45 minute drive via Interstate
Route 84.
New
York Route
17 (future I-86) also connects
with the Interstate and lies approximately 30 minutes from
Port Jervis.
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Attractions
Photos
of Some Port Jervis Area Attractions and a
Map
with Locations
and Descriptions
About
a 90 minute drive from New
York City, and within a
day's ride of Philadelphia,
PA, Atlantic
City, NJ, Washington,
D.C., Boston,
MA, and Montreal,
Canada, Port Jervis retains its
rural quality.
Attracted
by the area's
natural beauty, including the
scenic "Hawk's
Nest" section of New York
Route 97, every year hundreds of thousands of visitors
canoe
and raft down the Delaware river.
This same region is a popular fishing
spot and is graced with American
Bald Eagles that can be observed
from public viewing areas, particularly during the winter
months.
Walking
Directions from the New Jersey Transit Train Platform to Front
Street, Sussex Street, and the Delaware River.
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Additional
Information
The
following additional Wikipedia.org information about Port
Jervis and related areas is made available under the
terms and conditions of Creative
Commons.
Port Jervis is
a city in Orange County, New York. The population was 8,860
at the 2000 census. It is part of the
Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan
Statistical Area as well as the larger New
York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical
Area.
The communities
of Deerpark, Huguenot, Sparrowbush, and Greenville are
adjacent to Port Jervis. The towns of Montague, New Jersey
and Matamoras, Pennsylvania face the city across the
respective state borders. Port Jervis is the home of the
last stop on the 95-mile-long (151 km) Port Jervis
Line, which is a commuter railroad line from Hoboken, New
Jersey and New York City that is contracted to NJ Transit by
the Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company—the line itself
continues on to Binghamton and Buffalo, but passenger
service beyond Port Jervis was discontinued in 1966.
On June 2,
1892, Robert Lewis, an African American, was lynched on Main
Street in Port Jervis after being accused of participation
in an assault on a white woman. A grand jury indicated nine
people in connection with the lynching. This event
would serve as inspiration for one-time Port Jervis resident
and author Stephen Crane's 1898 novella The Monster.
Port Jervis
grew steadily into the 1900s. On July 26, 1907, it became a
city.
In the mid
1920's the Ku Klux Klan was active in the area, burning
crosses on Point Peter, the mountain peak that overlooks
Port Jervis.
As of the 2010 census
information available in March 2011 there were 8,828
people reported living in Port Jervis which represented a
decrease of 32 individuals or -.04% compared to a decade
earlier. The 2010 data showed the ethnic composition
of the community was 6,735 White, non-Hispanic,
1,054 Hispanic, 654 Black, 117 Asian, and 800
categorized as other with 6,596 of those individual listed
as adults and 2,232 as children. 2010
census figures noted 3,957 housing units and 387 vacant
housing.
South of the
Laurel Grove Cemetery, under the viaduct for Interstate 84,
are two monuments that symbolically mark the boundaries
between the states of New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania.
The Tri-State
Monument is a replacement for the original monument erected
in 1774 that was important in resolving the New York - New
Jersey Line War.
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|
Port
Jervis Walks from the New Jersey Transit Train
Platform
(Go Back to Top
of This Page) |
|
When
arriving at the Port Jervis train platform a fast
food restaurant is located nearby. If facing
toward the train and tracks the Delaware River and State
of Pennsylvania lie a few blocks away.
Port Jervis
like many other small communities has struggled under
difficult economic conditions and all that comes with
it. Challenges continue to be met. Progress
is shown by an expansion of the city's largest employer,
improved quality of life, more recreation and hobbyist
choices, broader public interest in Port Jervis, and
commercial property renovation
plans.
03 October 2013 |
| Front Street |
Sussex Street |
The Delaware River |
|
Front Street runs the length of the
downtown Port Jervis retail business area. Along
this route is a unique gift store, antique dealers, a
genuine barber shop, and restaurants. If walking
the full distance of the downtown area - about
one-quarter mile - the historic Erie Depot stands at its
far end. A short distance further on is an art
gallery.
.
.
1) After exiting the train platform turn
to the right heading in the direction the train just
came from.
2) Walk the length of the platform and then about
another 60 feet.
3)Pass through the opening on the left.
An orange street sculpture is there.
4) The street going left and right is Front
Street. Pike Street is straight ahead.
5) Move to the Front Street sidewalk, turn right and
enjoy your walk. |
Sussex
Street is the financial and governmental area of Port Jervis.
Banks, the post office, and the municipal building are found
here. A walk to the top of Sussex Street arrives at Orange
Square Veterans' Memorial Park originally built to honor veterans of
the American Civil War. Across Sussex Street from the park is
a Methodist church and rectory associated with writer, poet, and
correspondent, Stephen Crane.
.
1) Follow steps 1 through 5 to Front
Street.
2) Walk one block on right side of Front Street to Sussex Street and
cross to the left. At the corner there is a pillared building
with a chime clock. The walk from this spot to the park at the top of
the Sussex Street hill is about one-quarter mile.
|
The Delaware River serves as a dividing
line between Port Jervis, NY, and Matamoras, PA.
The bridge crossing the river provides a scenic view of
the valley and New Jersey where a stone monument can be
seen on a mountain top. Also in this area is an
asphalt walking trail that follows the river to the
city's West End Beach.
1) After exiting the train platform turn
to the right, heading back in the direction the train
came from.
2) Walk the length of the platform and then about
another 60 feet.
3)Pass through the opening on the left. An orange street
sculpture is there.
4) Use steps on immediate left leading to the train
underpass tunnel.
5) Turn left and emerge on the distant end of of the
tunnel. This is Pike Street.
6) Proceed forward. Continuing in this direction on Pike
Street the bridge crossing the Delaware River is
found. Pennsylvania is on the far side.
7) If going to the walking trail or West End Beach carefully cross Pike Street at the King
Street intersection traffic light.
8) Walk three blocks on King Street to Avenue I and
turn left.
9) Go to the end of Avenue I and cross Water
Street. The walking trail is at the top of
the river bank. For West End Beach, follow the
trail to the right.
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