The Harsimus Branch Embankment
Jersey City, New Jersey
2017
Marchetto Higgins Stieve Architects
The Embankment Schemes A and B
The Harsimus Branch is a rail corridor running for about a mile in Jersey City. Its Embankment is a massive, segmented stone structure with lush green meadows and forest on top that developed naturally when freight service ended.
There were 2 schemes developed for the owner in 2017 whom expressed and interest in developing a ‘Highline’ type concept which focused on residential development and linear Park below. These concepts were developed to maximize both Public Park and housing simultaneously. At present Jersey City is in the process of purchasing the land back from the developer.
The Historic Embankment
The Harsimus Branch Embankment is the sturdy vestige of a rail economy and landscape that once dominated Jersey City. The masonry and earth structure possesses a remarkable physical integrity and during construction the journalistic accounts stressed its monumental qualities. Landscape historian John Stilgoe writes of the structure as having “the everlasting solidity of Egyptian pyramids and Inca roads”
Designed by James J. Ferris, a prominent civil engineer and politician in Jersey City, the Embankment was erected from 1901-1905 to replace an existing iron and timber elevated rail line that was deemed too low and unstable.
