Claremont  . . . the place of ore and scrap.  Stand by. 

Let’s get oriented.  See the Statue midright slightly top in the map grab below?  Now follow the line representing the longer ferry route.  That is the Claremont Terminal Channel, a place you don’t go to unless you have to.  That ferry picks up on the south side of Port Liberté.  Here‘s a great montage of images in different directions from there.

See the bare earth and all the scows stacked up along the SW side of channel?

This is the domain of Sims Metal Claremont Jersey City. Find out about the shredder pulpit, zorba, and the monetary values of things related to Claremont here.  Sims is named for Albert Sims, of Sydney AU, who started the company over a century ago. To see the yard closer up, go to google earth and zoom in.

Quite often a bulk carrier is docked there, loading mostly steel and ferrous scrap in chunks created by the megashredder mentioned above along with zorba. 

One fact that’s interesting to me is from 150 years ago back to time immemorial, this was likely marsh grass leading into rich oyster beds.  In 1920 it was bulkheaded “by the Lehigh Valley railroad to unload ore-laden freighters from South America, the Claremont Terminal’s considerable dockside trackage was used to quickly deliver raw ore for use in the steel mills of Bethlehem Steel at Bethlehem, PA.”  During WW2, it “was repurposed for the loading of US Army troopships and transports following the war and working in conjunction with the Caven Point Army Terminal provided much of the material used by US forces in the early years of the Korean War.”  I’d love to know where in South America the ore came from.

On the other side of the channel is Caven Point, “operational from early 1900’s until the early 1970’s [as] a large US Army installation located on the tidal flats of Jersey City. Caven Point’s proximity to key rail networks and the ports of New York and New Jersey made it invaluable for the marshalling of troops, munitions and materials heading for front lines in Europe. During WWII, the facility was one of the major points of embarkation of US soldiers heading overseas, and was also one of the major East Coast POW processing points for captured German and Italian troops during the war. Following the cessation of hostilities, Caven Point was a key receiving point for homeward bound American servicemen, and again used its proximity to US rail lines to send tens of thousands of troops on their way home.”  Sources are here and here. Near the end of this link are photos of USN vessels at Caven Point.

This photo is taken from the innermost area of Claremont looking back out.  The USACE buildings at Caven Point are to the left, and Atlantic Veracruz is along the dock to the right.  Rebecca Ann and Sarah Ann are managing the scrap scows.  Shoreside here is not Sims but Clean Earth, Inc.

That’s Brooklyn in the distance.

All photos and reads, WVD.