Railroad Ties in Port Jervis

By Linda Tancs

Port Jervis, New York, is inextricably tied to the railroad industry. Its depot was built as a passenger station for the Erie Railroad and for years was the busiest passenger station on the railroad’s Delaware Branch because Port Jervis is along the Delaware River near the tripoint of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Incorporated in 1907 and named after John Bloomfield Jervis (the engineer of the Delaware & Hudson Canal), the city’s transportation history is being commemorated with a new history center. Located at the city-owned historic Erie Railyard and turntable (the longest-operating turntable in the eastern U.S.), the Port Jervis Transportation History Center will host a collection of locomotives, boxcars and cabooses, preserving the city’s railroad heritage and its role as a crossroads of commerce.