The old Jersey Central Terminal, also known as the Communipaw Terminal, once provided Hudson River ferry access to Manhattan for the Jersey Central, Baltimore & Ohio, Lehigh Valley, and Reading Railroads. It closed in 1967 when the Jersey Central folded and was quickly looted for any kind of railroad memorabilia. By 1974, it had been plundered for anything else of value. When the price of scrap copper soared in the early 1970s, the copper skin of its cupola was stripped and carted off for sale by off-duty Jersey City cops. The twin towers of the original World Trade Center on the left in the picture had just opened in 1973, while the old terminal appeared headed for demolition. Now, ironically, the towers are gone and the terminal building has been restored.

Above are the wooden shambles of a barge repair yard, including a barge that may have once served as a floating office. Below is Bill Casey, who said he had run the yard since 1920. Bill said at this spot on the Hudson they could float barges in at high tide and when the tide went out, the barges would be left in the mud where they could be worked on. For a fee, barges could also tie up there. Some did, never to work on the river again when their owners disappeared or died.  (continue reading)

The Hebrew Convalescent Home was notched into the high bluff over the Hudson at Piermont, NY, next to Rt.9W with a panoramic view of the river and the Tappan Zee Bridge. The place was still operating when I first noticed it in early 1970. When it closed I made a mental note to visit with my camera, which I only got to do once before it was demolished, probably in 1975.

These retired New York City subway cars were stacked at Naporano Iron and Metal in the Ironbound section of Newark waiting to be crushed for scrap. Naporano’s wasn’t your everyday junk yard. They didn’t buy old cars or stolen copper pipe from junkies. They dealt with big stuff you couldn’t steal without a crane and a big truck. They left the yard's railroad access unsecured.

Junk yard dogs were on my mind the Sunday morning I visited. I didn't expect to find someone living there. But that’s what Leonard Wilson was doing in a railroad car next to the stacked subway cars. His belongings were piled on one seat and he had clearly been sleeping on another. He was as surprised to see me as I was to see him. Leonard said he had been living in the rail cars since the summer when his rooming house north of McCarter Highway burned down. It was safer here, he said. He didn’t get robbed all the time. Leonard said the Naporano guys let him stay and he paid his way by pulling copper wiring from the cars. That's him in the photo below.  At least there were no junkyard dogs.

You're looking at Colden Street in Newburgh that runs diagonally down the bluff from Broadway at the top, to the Hudson River waterfront below. The buildings of old Newburgh were razed during the era of urban renewal, from the 1950s into the 1970s. Considered old and ugly at the time, those buildings by the river would now be considered historic gems.  U.S. urban renewal, authorized by the American Housing Act of 1949, took out many slums across the country but also destroyed many classic downtowns. It was particularly unkind to Newburgh. All the buildings - none historic gems - in this photo were waiting for the wrecking ball when I took this shot in 1969 or 1970. They were demolished soon after and never replaced.  But to be honest, at least in this one instance, Colden St. looks  better now than it did then.