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==History== [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquian]] people, primarily [[Lenape]], lived in the area prior to Dutch colonisation in the 17th century. [[David Pietersen de Vries|David Pietersz Devries]] (also transliterated as David Pietersen de Vries), the first European settler, bought {{convert|500|acres|0|abbr=on}} of land from the [[Tappan (Native Americans)|Tappan]] tribe and established the settlement of [[Vriessendael]] in what is now Edgewater.<ref>Ruttenber, Edward Manning. [https://archive.org/details/ruttenberindians00ruttrich ''History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River: Their Origin, Manners and Customs, Tribal and Sub-tribal Organizations, Wars, Treaties, Etc.''], {{ISBN|0-910746-98-2}} (Hope Farm Press, 3rd ed, 2001)</ref> A historical plaque placed in Veteran's Field by the Bergen County Historical Society names Vriessendael as the first known colony in [[Bergen County]] with a founding date of 1640. Parts of Vriessendael were destroyed in 1643 during [[Kieft's War]] in reprisal for the massacres of Lenape people taking refuge at [[Pavonia, New Netherland#Pavonia Massacre|Pavonia]] and [[Massacre at Corlears Hook|Corlears Hook]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Skinner |first=Alanson |date=February 1, 1908 |title=The Massacre of the Lenapé Indians in 1643 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e1MxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA53#v=onepage&q&f=false |journal=Proceedings of the Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences |volume=2 |pages=53-57 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Fiske |first=John |title=The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America |work=Dinsmore Documentation |pages=159-161}}</ref> In pioneer days, River Road was known as the Hackensack Turnpike,<ref>Hall, ''Edgewater'', p. 9.</ref> and Ox <nowiki>[</nowiki>''sic''<nowiki>]</nowiki> Hill Road was an important route to the top of the Palisades Cliff.<ref name="adams"/> While Oxen Hill Road still exists as a thoroughfare, another Colonial hallmark and major local industry<ref name="adams"/> has only recently disappeared: shad fishing. The Undercliff section in the northern section of Edgewater was originally a colony of fishermen.<ref>Adams, ''Hudson River Guidebook'', p. 101</ref> In the 1980s there were still about 100 commercial fishermen in New Jersey harvesting shad from their annual spring run from the Atlantic Ocean up the Hudson River to spawn. Now there are none.<ref name="westergaard">Westergaard, Barbara. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ww7BJbdR4lEC ''New Jersey: A Guide to the State''], p. 86. [[Rutgers University Press]], 2006. {{ISBN|9780813536859}}. Accessed October 6, 2015.</ref> Etienne Burdett began ferry service between north Edgewater and the island of Manhattan in 1758. His gambrel-roofed house in what is now the Edgewater Colony stood until 1899.<ref>Hall, ''Edgewater'', p. 13</ref> The ferry service at [[Burdett's Landing]], which was located at the southern base of the bluff of Fort Lee, proved valuable to the American cause during the Revolutionary War. The ferry functioned as the link for supplies, information and transportation between Fort Lee on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River and Fort Washington on the New York side.<ref>Adams, ''Hudson River Guide'', pp. 103, 104</ref> In the century following the Revolutionary war, north Edgewater developed into a resort area with large hotels built in the mid- and late 19th century.<ref name="adams25">{{cite book | last = Adams | first = Arthur G. | title = The Hudson River Guidebook | publisher = Fordham University Press | year = 1996 | location = New York | url =https://archive.org/details/hudsonriverguide0000adam| url-access = registration | isbn = 9780823216796 | page = [https://archive.org/details/hudsonriverguide0000adam/page/104 104]}}</ref> It was in the 19th century that Burdett's Landing became known as "Old Stone Dock", as cobblestones quarried from the Palisades Cliffs by Russell & Read were shipped across the Hudson to fill the demand for paving Manhattan streets.<ref name="Hall, Edgewater, p. 25">Hall, ''Edgewater'', p. 25.</ref> Concern over the destruction caused by quarrying operations led to the formation of the Palisades Interstate Park in 1900, which was effective in preserving the cliffs.<ref>[http://www.njpalisades.org/history.html History], [[Palisades Interstate Park Commission]]. Accessed December 4, 2013. "The two states had formed the Palisades Interstate Park Commission nine years earlier, in 1900, to preserve the famous Palisades cliffs from several large quarries that were blasting them for gravel and building material."</ref> Although the first chemical plant was founded in 1843 in the south section of the borough,<ref name="colorant"/> throughout the 19th century the town retained a bucolic character.<ref name="Hall, Edgewater, p. 25"/> Early in the 20th century the addition of landfill to the Hudson River changed the borough's appearance. Until that time, the Hudson River lay closer to River Road from just above Veteran's field southward to what is now the Binghamton Ferry Plaza.<ref>Hall, ''Edgewater'', p. 8.</ref> [[File:Edgewater old ferry terminal.jpg|left|thumb|Trolley terminal and ferry house, early 20th century]] The 20th century brought great change to Edgewater with industrialization, which overwhelmed the borough<ref name="Hall, Edgewater, p. 49">Hall, ''Edgewater'', p. 49</ref> and filled {{convert|3|mi}} of the shoreline with its operations. Transportation of factory goods was facilitated when the [[New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway]] cut the [[Edgewater Tunnel]] through the Palisades in 1894 to connect the borough to its main line.<ref name=Thinking1995/> Edgewater was also well situated for shipping, with deep water piers on the Hudson River and access to abundant labor from Manhattan.<ref name="colorant"/> Generally, industrial development occurred in the southern end of the borough, while the northern end remained residential.<ref name="adams"/> As industrialization increased in the borough, picnic grounds lost their appeal and resort hotels faded.<ref name="Hall, Edgewater, p. 21">Hall, ''Edgewater'', p. 21</ref> By 1918, there were 8,044 workers employed by Edgewater's manufacturing facilities, producing primarily chemicals, dyes, and confectionery products such as oils and sugars. Prominent industries of Edgewater included a [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] assembly plant, [[Alcoa]], [[Valvoline]], and the [[American Can Company]].<ref name="colorant"/><ref>Hall, ''Edgewater'', p. 28 and pp. 33-37</ref> Railroad trains served various factories, traversing tracks laid in River Road.<ref name="Hall, Edgewater, p. 49"/> During the first 30 years of the century, Edgewater's population quadrupled, and the transient workforce increased tenfold.<ref name="Hall, Edgewater, p. 21"/> Eventually the factories closed. The reasons were varied, but they included the globalization of industry, obsolete facilities<ref name="colorant"/> and the replacement of railroad shipping by trucking,<ref name="westergaard"/> which could not run its large tractor trailer trucks on Edgewater's narrow streets.<ref name=Thinking1995/> [[Joseph Mitchell (writer)|Joseph Mitchell's]] essay ''The Rivermen'', which was published in ''[[The New Yorker]]'' and is included in his book ''The Bottom of the Harbor'', provides an evocative portrait of life in Edgewater in the early 20th century.<ref>[[Joseph Mitchell (writer)|Mitchell, Joseph]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=0UHaxkZCPLoC ''The Bottom of the Harbor''], [[Random House]], 2008. {{ISBN|9780307377630}}. Accessed October 9, 2013.</ref> [[File:Edgewater Industrial 1930 Fortune.jpg|thumb|left|{{center|1930 ''Fortune'' magazine photo of industrial and chemical operations in south Edgewater.<ref name="colorant">Baptista, Robert J. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20071017173722/http://colorantshistory.org/ShadysideChemInd.html "The Chemical Industry of Shadyside (Edgewater), New Jersey"]}}, ColorantsHistory.Org, updated December 16, 2012. Accessed March 16, 2015.</ref> Today this land is a Superfund site.}}]] The late 20th century history of Edgewater was one of change from an industrialized town to a residential one. With the closing of the factories, development initially came to Edgewater in the 1960s<ref>Hall, ''Edgewater'', p. 70</ref> and grew exponentially in the early 1980s, as developers began projects to convert the industrial sites that had historically led to Edgewater not being considered as an option for development.<ref>Daniels, Lee A. [https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/11/business/condominium-rises-along-hudson-in-edgewater-nj.html "Condominimum Rises Along Hudson in Edgewater, N.J."], ''[[The New York Times]]'', June 11, 1982. Accessed December 4, 2013. "For years this small municipality (population: 4,600; size: three and a half miles by a quarter mile) seemed destined to be bypassed by the slow but steady march of high-rise office and residential development along the west bank of the Hudson River from West New York to Fort Lee."</ref> As condominiums were built along the Hudson where industry had formerly operated,<ref name="Hall, Edgewater, p. 101">Hall, ''Edgewater'', p. 101</ref> the population of Edgewater grew rapidly. The population had been mostly in the 4,000 to 5,000 range from 1930 to 1990, then increased by 50% to 7,677 in 2000 and again by 50% to 11,513 in the 2010 Census.<ref name=Census2010/> Borough council members and residents acknowledge that population growth has exacerbated the problem of increased traffic.<ref name=Thinking2003/><ref name=Thinking1995/> With the transition from industrial to residential, crime statistics were down, with the police chief describing how bar fights between factory workers were commonplace in the early 1970s,<ref name=Thinking1995>Cheslow, Jerry. [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/30/realestate/if-you-re-thinking-of-living-in-edgewater-factory-town-is-now-bedroom-community.html "If You're Thinking of Living In: Edgewater; Factory Town Is Now Bedroom Community"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', July 30, 1995. Accessed December 4, 2013. "'When I joined the Edgewater Police Department 24 years ago, our work was mainly breaking up bar fights between factory workers,' said Donald A. Martin, chief of the 22-person police force. 'There was a bar on every corner and it was really a wild place. Now, the factories and bars are gone and the crime rate has dropped to near zero.'"</ref> while real estate values are up. Because of the expense of buying property, some currently refer to Edgewater as part of the Gold Coast.<ref name="colorant"/> A photographic history of Edgewater describes the population and demographics change and its possible consequence this way: <blockquote>Now a good number of residents live on the river in condominiums and rental apartments and town houses on land that was once the province of heavy industry. Some see this as the creation of a town divided, with the newcomers living on the east side of River Road by the Hudson River and the old-timers living on the west side of River Road.<ref name="Hall, Edgewater, p. 101"/></blockquote> [[File:HudsonWaterfrontGWBtoJC.JPG|thumb|275px|A southward view of Edgewater (foreground) from the [[George Washington Bridge]], with the skyline of [[Jersey City, New Jersey|Jersey City]] in the background]] Although the borough is unrecognizable as the industrial town it once was, growing pains have left marks. When the old Alcoa plant site from 1916 began to be converted to condominiums, construction was forced to halt for cleanup of industrial contaminants, including excessively high concentrations of PCBs.<ref name=Thinking1995/> In another case, construction of a condominium/shopping center in south Edgewater was interrupted for six months by safety measures to protect workers from chemical exposure in the lead- and arsenic-riddled soil.<ref name=Thinking2003/> Next to this structure, behind a chain link fence lies a Superfund site.<ref name="colorant"/> Operational Hess Oil tanks, beside the derelict Alcoa rolling mill, once the second-largest in the world, are a reminder of the borough's industrial phase. The building, occupying 1,100,000 square feet (100,000 m2) of space, was designed in 1914 and was used to roll ingots of aluminum into sheets that were used to create everything from toothpaste tubes to aircraft frames, before the facility was abandoned in 1967 due to lack of space needed to expand the facility.<ref>Hall, ''Edgewater'', p. 28</ref><ref>Barbanel, Josh. [https://www.nytimes.com/1979/04/08/archives/a-new-ft-lee-some-say-it-is-happening-in-edgewater-a-new-ftlee-some.html "A 'New Ft. Lee'? Some Say It Is Happening In Edgewater"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', April 8, 1979. Accessed September 13, 2017.</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/20131205043904/http://www.northjersey.com/photos/photonp072210_1058.html?photo=2&c=y "A Look Back - Aluminum factory was Edgewater mainstay"], [[NorthJersey.com]], backed up by [[archive.is]] as of December 5, 2013. Accessed September 13, 2017. "Alcoa's huge aluminum plant was an Edgewater landmark and a centerpiece of its industrial era.... But with no room to expand, it closed in 1967 and sat vacant for three decades until it was demolished in the late 1990s in a project that included a cleanup of the PCBs that contaminated the site."</ref>
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