Palisades Park, New Jersey history

The Borough of Palisades Park was created by the Borough Act of 1878, which allowed townships to separate and establish itself as an independent Borough.

The Society at last found an ally on the Jersey side of the river in 1895, when the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs joined the fight.

While assembled at a convention in 1896, the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs presented maps, photos, and pamphlets to argue for the importance of scientific forestry and protection for the Palisades.

Ever attentive to public education and publicity, in 1897 Gaines and Vermilye led an expedition by yacht to observe a Palisades blasting site.

Then, in 1898, conservationist Theodore Roosevelt won the governorship.

Palisades Park was incorporated on March 22, 1899 from portions of Ridgefield Township.

In 1900, the Commission began its work.

First system of organized group camping (1906)

By the time Palisades Interstate Park officially opened in 1909, it was already a destination.

The ambitious construction of camps, trails, beaches, and boathouses, along with new roads and bridges, made the Palisades parks the most popular in the country. It expanded inland, in 1910, after Edward and Mary Harriman donated 10,000 acres, spurring the creation of Harriman and Bear Mountain State Parks.

Millions of visitors descended on the parks by the early 1920s.

First section of the Appalachian Trail was blazed in Harriman State Park (1923)

First nature trail (1925)

By 1930, these two ferry lines, together, transported over a million vehicles across the river each year.

Named the George Washington Memorial Bridge when it opened in October 1931, its construction raised a serious question: What was to become of the summit of the Palisades, once it had been made accessible to every automobile in New York City?

He would donate several hundred acres to the Commission in 1933, with the stipulation that the Commission use this land to build a scenic parkway from the new George Washington Bridge to the Bear Mountain Bridge — and that all man-made structures visible from across the river be removed.

Many factors — the improving economy, the opening of the George Washington Bridge (which spelled doom for most of the ferry lines), America’s entry into the Second World War —and, finally, river pollution — led to the closing of the last Palisades beach, at Alpine, after the 1943 season.

A “demonstration mile” for the public opened in Englewood Cliffs in 1950.

The final section in New Jersey was completed in Alpine on June 22, 1957.

The Palisades Interstate Parkway, which opened to motorists in 1958 on recently acquired parkland, helped to secure these goals.

In 1983 “The Palisades of the Hudson” was designated a National Natural Landmark, as “the best example of a thick diabase sill formation known in the United States.

In 1998 the Palisades Interstate Parkway was designated as a National Landmark by the National Park Service.

With New York City’s population soaring—to 29 million by 2000 they predicted—planners hoped to protect open space, improve transportation, and encourage wider distribution of the population.