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Snug Harbor

The rail line ran along the coast of Kill van Kull in front of Snug Harbor and into the neighborhood of Livingston. The topography of the area necessitated running the line directly along the coastline and large portions of the ROW have eroded. The erosion in the 1980s made the line impassible just prior to abandonment in 1990.

The coastline just west of Atlantic Salt was home to a skate park that had long been abandoned when I visited in 2009. There was a complex array of wooden boardwalks in various states of disrepair that presented a curious juxtaposition of abandoned rail, wooden structures, and plant growth.

The Sailor's Snug Harbor station was on the coastline, accessed from ornate stone stairways at the west and east ends of the platform. The east end is near the front entry archway to Snug Harbor, with the rear end at Snug Harbor Road. Only the westbound track remains, with the eastbound track presumably on piers out over the coastline. The approximate length of the platform had been covered with an asphalt pathway when I visited in 2009. Reconstruction plans could relocate the station up closer to Richmond Terrace, leaving the coastline for a riverside park.

The line west of Snug Harbor was built on a wooden trestle that was then enclosed with a wooden retaining wall and backfilled with gravel. As the retaining decayed and collapsed, the rail line followed, leaving rails hanging precariously over what is left of the trestle.

A creek that runs through the west part of Snug Harbor empties into Kill van Kull through a culvert that still holds the track intact above it.

A maintained but forlorn memorial to the residents of Livingston that made the supreme sacrifice in WW-II sits just above the track along Richmond Terrace near Snug Harbor Road. Ironically, the memorial's now-remote location demonstrates how the geographic changes of time often lead us to forget things we should remember.

R.H. Tugs is an incongruously nice restaurant between the coast and Richmond Terrace at Snug Harbor Road. A portion of the eastbound track was restored behind the restaurant when the coastline was shored up to prevent the restaurant from falling into the water. However, rail buffs immediately realize it is a fake from the thin, pressure-treated ornamental wooden ties. Whatever was holding up the westbound track long ago eroded into the water.

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