UNTIL about ten years ago there was a very old, rusted, arrow-shaped sign pointing toward New Jersey on Richmond Terrace just east of Port Richmond Avenue, and if you look carefully you can just make out the words “Bayonne Ferry” on each side. It was one of the last remnants of the Port Richmond-Bergen Point (later Bayonne) Ferry, which ran off and on from 1701 to 1961. The ferry was begun by Jacob Corsen.
The ferry was rendered more or less redundant by the opening of the Bayonne Bridge in 1931, which I walked back in 2012; but it soldiered on for three more decades. The walkway was closed for a few years while the bridge roadbed was raised to allow full shipping access in the Kill Van Kull.
The outline of the metal arrow sign can be seen in this 1930 photo of the ferry entrance on Richmond Terrace. Note the trolley tracks and railcar diner on the right. Photo: Classic MTA Facebook group
I’ve mentioned this sign before in features I’ve done in Port Richmond. However, even though I haven’t visited since a couple of years ago, I have gotten word that this sign has since disappeared and with it the last traces of that old ferry route. However its supporting poles remain. Sick transit, Gloria!
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
1/28/26
6 comments
“…However its supporting poles remain.” From Google Earth, it appears that only the pole closest to the street, which somewhat resembles an Eastern Orthodox cross, remains…
okay.
Or a Cross of Lorraine.
Spent many a late-night waiting for the S1 Richmond Terrace bus at that exact spot in front of the red, white and blue fence in the modern photo. That arrow was there for so many years. Besides the one pole still remaining, the fire hydrant is still in the same spot 90 years later.
I never got to ride the Bayonne Ferry, but I have walked over the bridge a few times, most recently last August. The view from the raised roadway is even better than before and includes some nice placards with photos and a history of both Port Richmond and Bayonne posted along the walkway. The PA did that job right.
I last saw it in 2016. it was totally rusted, but the words “TO THE FERRY” could still be made out. Any way to post a photo for you?
In the last couple of summers that the ferry operated, ’60 an ’61 my grandmother took my brother and me on the ferry from Port Richmond over to Bayonne, where there was an amusement park where the ferry docked. I’m not sure of the official name of the park, but everyone knew it as “Uncle Milty’s.”