A rare look at the CNJ Terminal - "Funny Girl"

I found this interesting video clip on You Tube that features the CNJ Terminal in Jersey City.

The focus is on the preparation and filming of a scene from the movie Funny Girl that was shot there. However it starts with the introduction of the gentlemen appointed caretaker after the terminal was shut down, but before it was abandonded.

Yes, the narator keeps saying Hoboken, but get past that you will see parts of the terminal that are gone now, most notably the Ferry Headhouse and it's interior.

Enjoy !

Ken


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gWPKV0Vo-E

'Funny Girl' was released 1968 and shot 1967, so this was shortly after Aldene.

Was there really a "Charlie Peterson?"

Note: New York Central tugboat No. 24 is seen briefly at 5:40, in all it's jade green splendor. It's shown again at 8:40 and the big finish at 8:59.

He talks about the station being shutdown for 5 years.. They used the terminal to store passenger cars through the mid 1970's??

WOW!!! This is rare. I can't beleive that even two tracks weren 't kept for the possiblity of rail returning to the CNJ even if it's light rail. Better then no rail at all. It would've made it alot easier for the HBLR simply to be extended to there to boost tourism. It's too bad more movies weren't filmed there. I also would've liked if someone asked Charlie about his time at the CNJ and given more of a tour like the shops that were ultimately demolished. Sadly TLC and Discovery weren't around then.

blockline4180 wrote:He talks about the station being shutdown for 5 years.. They used the terminal to store passenger cars through the mid 1970's??

It is very possible that a caretaker was kept on to 1972.

The start of the you tube clip could have been from that year (1972) and that would have been 5 years from the station's closing.
1972 being a critical year as that is when the CNJ shut down the Communipaw Engine Terminal/Shops and the Freight Yard.
So perhaps since there was still acitivty near the station they kept a caretaker there, up to that point.

Funny Girl was filmed there a few months after the Aldene Plan took affect in 1967.

Look for the scene where the film crew takes a special ferry over the the terminal and you will see there was still one CNJ Ferry Boat
docked at the ferry slips.

As mentioned by another poster, seeing a New York Central Tug, in it's jade green livery is another treat.

I don't know how many years it lasted, but the CNJ also had a caretaker at the Broad Street Station for at least a few years after it was
shut down (also part of the Aldene Plan).

Ken

Thanks Ken!

peconicstation wrote: Look for the scene where the film crew takes a special ferry over the the terminal and you will see there was still one CNJ Ferry Boat
docked at the ferry slips.

That boat is the Elizabeth (nee Lakewood). I rode with the Captain in the wheelhouse for the very last trip from Liberty Street to the CNJ Terminal on the Friday just before Aldene. The two leased diesel ferries (former Verazanno Narrows boats) were used on weekends so one of them was the very last run, Saturday night (I rode that one as a passenger, and the connecting and last train to Bayonne West 8th.) The Elizabeth was sold by the CNJ to Public Service Electric and Gas Company for use as a Nuclear visitors center at Artificial Island in Salem County called the Second Sun. It later was sold (I did the PSE&G legal work for the NJ Utility Commission approval of the sale) to a restaurant owner in Philadelphia. PSE&G at the time had offered to donate the boat to the State for return to Liberty State Park, but the State refused the offer, unfortunately. After the restaurant stopped using and neglected the boat, it was intentionally sunk off the NJ coast a few years ago as part of the NJ artificial reef program.

The film of the Terminal sure brings back memories.

The boatshed was simliar to the Lackawanna at Hoboken and was torn down in the 1970s during redevlopment of Liberty State Park.

The video is gone. Anyone got a new link?

No, but the movie "Funny Girl" will air on Turner Classic Movies next Saturday (3 October) at 8:00 PM Eastern.

For what it's worth, the steam engine used to pull the train was George Hart's former CPR pacific, #1286, and the pan shot of the train was taken on the High Bridge Branch. I regret to say I don't recall where I learned of the second bit of info, but the 1286 tidbit is as good as gold.

Regards,

Micah

are any interior photos available for the Central Railroad Ferry Terminal at Liberty and West Street New york City?