Travels With Tonoose

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By Anthony Buccino

BUS - TRAIN LIGHT RAIL AUTO FOOTPATH

I Spy With My Little Eye

After about ten months of driving my faithful minivan across Hudson County I'd become more than familiar enough with the Belleville Turnpike and the WittPenn bridge entering Jersey City proper and the last four miles of my drive.

I would exit the Witt Penn bridge onto that crazy old circle and move up to sit through a few changes of the light near the top of the hill.

That's when I'd see the PATH car go by with all those people standing in there like Charlie the Tuna in a sardine can.

Could you IMAGINE going to work like that every day?

I would never have believed that I'd forego my single occupancy minivan and the entertaining drive along Newark Avenue to the waterfront, but ...
About four years ago, when I started to include the PATH on my morning commute, I'd look out the window and wonder what were the sites I saw.

You get a different perspective of the view from the PATH car than you do on the Turnpike extension or the Belleville Pike.

I thought some day I'd write a travelogue about what you see on the ten or so minute PATH ride from the time you leave Newark Penn Station until you disappear underground east of Journal Square.

The big field in Harrison? A future soccer stadium? Or a flood zone?

The Meadowlands is easy. Grass and water.

The distant bridges, which were which?

What's that old boat doing on that decrepit dock?

The Benjamin Moore plant looks really swell.

Is that a car wash for PATH trains?

Look, a step-up to the PATH car in the middle of nowhere.

What is the place with all the rail cars and intermodal containers (trailer boxes, to most people)?

The Turnpike here,

The Verrazzano out there.

The airport beyond those fields there.

To the north there's Fraternity Rock, in the direction of Giants Stadium.

Look, there's a truck graveyard in the middle of the swamp.

On the PATH crossing into Penn Station, if you are looking out the window north, you see a parallel bridge also heading into the train station.

If you watch what you see, you'll see a trash can in the middle of the bridge. And not only that, the trash can will be full.

I thought they ought to put a toll on the Stickel Bridge. Why not? All the cars are stopped there every night any way. Why not have them feed the kitty?

These days, the ominous 'they' don't want you to know what you're seeing because that information might fall into the wrong hands.

So, for now, I just guess at what I don't know. It's nearly as much fun as knowing.

Until I figure how to post my old PATH photos here, you too, will have to use your imagination.

- Happy Trails,
-- Anthony

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