Newark Free Bridge/Bridge Street Bridge Photos Do you have a photo of this waterway? If so please email me. Spans the Passaic River at Bridge Street

Newspaper Articles

June 14, 1908 - Car on the Edge of an Open Draw

From "Newark and Its Leading Businessmen" 1891:

The oldest of the inter-county bridges is what is called the Newark Free Bridge.  It crosses the river at the foot of Bridge Street, Newark and connects the city with the town of Harrison, in Hudson County.  It is the oldest bridge over the Passaic River and has been in existence from the time when "the memory of man runneth not to the contrary."  It was formerly the property of a turnpike company, which maintained a wretched road between Newark and Jersey City, and had bridges over both the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers, exacting a toll at each.  In 1872 the bridge over the Passaic was purchased from the turnpike company by the counties of Essex and Hudson, for $70,000, under an act passed by the Legislature for that purpose.  Each county paid one half, or $35,000, and the bridge has been in the care of a joint committee of the Boards of Chosen Freeholders of the two counties ever since.  In 1880 the bridge was rebuilt, and a handsome and substantial structure of stone and iron was erected at a cost of $125,000, each county paying one half.