New Brunswick Station

New Brunswick Station. . Date 1903 , William H. Brown, Engineer , The New Jersey Railroad, chartered in 1832, was completed between Jersey City and New Brunswick in 1835. On January 2, 1836, the first train, a new locomotive named "The New Brunswick" traveled down from Newark at fifteen miles an hour. Thirteen cars filled with guests from along the route were decorated with banners bearing the names of the counties, cities and villages the line passed through. In order to traverse the Raritan River and Delaware and Raritan Canal on this line, passengers were transported across the old Albany Street bridge (1795) in stagecoaches at a cost of 6 1/2 cents. This method of carrying passengers over the waterway only lasted two years for in 1838, a steel railroad bridge was constructed over the channels. In 1902, after the line was incorporated into the Pennsylvania Railroad, the current stone arch bridge replaced the steel bridge. New Brunswick station was built in conjunction with the 1902 arched span during the P.R.R.'s massive reconstruction of the main line (1890-1910). The station was constructed from standardized plans designed by William H. Brown, Chief Engineer of the P.R.R. and is identical to the station in Chester, Pa. (1902) and the former station at Elizabeth, N.J. (1894). Due to their standardization of stations (in addition to motive power, rolling stock, and engineering) the Pennsy was called "The Standard Railroad of the World". The Georgian Revival style of New Brunswick station is characterized by the symmetrically balanced five-bay facade, multi-paned windows with double hung sashes, hipped roof with dormers and Classical detailing such as quoins, dentils, and a Palladian window. New Brunswick Station was listed on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1984.