Another day, another adventure! This time I managed to drag Sky along and we went for a little trip to Edgewater, with a couple detours for me. A brief history lesson first:
The Edgewater Tunnel is a former railroad tunnel through Bergen Hill, the Hudson Palisades. Originally opened in 1894, it was built to gain access to the Hudson River waterfront. About 200 ft (61 m) underground and about 1 mile (1.6 km) long, its western cut and portal is located in the Fairview Cemetery in Fairview and the eastern portal is located in Edgewater. The right-of-way was removed from service in about 1992 and the track was removed shortly thereafter.
A pipeline now runs through the tunnel between Hess facilities in Bogota and Edgewater. A power cable, part of the Hudson Project, running from a Bergen Generating Station substation through the tunnel and under the Hudson to Midtown Manhattan, was completed in 2013.1
Fairview Cemetery
We drove about an hour out, and stopped at Fairview Cemetery first. It’s on the side of a pretty good sized hill, and sprawls 106 acres full of beautiful foliage; they apparently do tours of the grounds the fall. I’m certainly looking forward to that now that I live somewhere where I get to experience seasons :) The cemetery was dedicated in September 1868 and was only 16.5 acres at the time. 2 Crazy how much history there is to be found in New Jersey! The grounds were very well maintained and they have a large indoor mausoleum. A few groups of people were there paying respect to love ones. There was still just a little bit of snow on the ground, the sun was peeking out through the clouds, and a light breeze in the air. It really was a beautiful visit. A refreshing break from the completely full and unloved old cemeteries I’m used to seeing around in NJ.
To make a long story short though, the tunnel wasn’t easily accessible from this side. There is a way in, but I wasn’t in the mood to be wading through water to find it. Not today at least :)
As we were leaving, I figured I’d take out the drone and get a quick couple shots. They weren’t the best, but still a very stunning view with Manhattan in the background! It was my first time applying for a LAANC as well. Granted, it was automatically authorized, but with it’s proximity to an airport and the nature of a cemetery I feel like my anxieties were pretty valid. Quick in and out though, I had the drone up for no more than 5 minutes so as not to cause any trouble. Onwards to the next spot!
Edgewater
The Edgewater side was only really accessible through a steep drop off the side of the road, or through an active construction zone… Safe to say I ended up doing neither and just getting a little bit of drone footage to cut my losses. I parked the car nearby and walked over to the bend in the road that overlooked the tunnel.
Not a very ideal angle to visually fly at all. Since I wasn’t trying to lose my drone in a place I couldn’t get down to without breaking some bones, getting a terrible disease from all that still water, getting arrested for trespassing, or a horrible combination of the three … I played it very safe; which again did not yield the best footage, but there’s always next time!
Mitsuwa Market
No trip to Edgewater with Sky is complete without a stop at Mitsuwa Market. First, some quick shopping at Little Japan (I was good this time and only got a couple blind boxes and a Mofusand memo card stand) and then dinner at the Market. I got some onigiri from Omusubi Gonbei (the fuckin best onigiri I’ve had in my life) and Sky got karaage chicken and a half dozen tayaki. On the way out, a quick mandatory stop at the gashapon machines. They had the GOAT of gasha, the Machiboke series, and they were MINI GASHAPON MACHINES! A mythical pull here in the US where the weird ones don’t usually make it over the pond.
Guttenberg North Bergen Waterfront Park
On the way home, with my newly found confidence from filing the LAANC earlier, I wanted to get a quick shot of the Manhattan skyline at night and we ended up at this random park. I really pretty spot with lights in the trees, angry birds in the playground, and a beautiful view overlooking the Hudson river and NYC. I got a quick video, after almost slipping and dying because of ice on the stairs down to the waterfront, and back to the car before I could get yelled at!
All in all, a great day trip as always with Sky :) Busy weekend, but I’m glad to have these opportunities to explore all the history and culture this state has to offer.
Sky also got Lucky more of her catnip mice and she’s been loving them!
Until next time!!