Hand-built in the mid-1800s, the 4,000-foot-long Piermont Pier on the Hudson River in Rockland County was once a terminus of the longest railroad in the world – the Erie Railroad.
Hampered by rules about railroads crossing state lines, the Erie built a pier nearly a mile long across the marshy bay at Piermont and out to the deeper parts of the Hudson River, where steamboats could pick up passengers and take them on to New York City.
During the Second World War, some 500,000 soldiers stepped-off the pier onto troop ships headed for Europe, earning it the nickname “Last Stop U.S.A.”
The village’s name, previously known as Tappan Landing, was given by Dr. Eleazar Lord, author, educator and deacon of the First Protestant Dutch Church and first president of the Erie Railroad.
To learn more about the fascinating history of the pier, check out this short video produced by the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, whose Hudson River Field Station is located in Piermont.
More information about the history of Piermont Pier, especially its role in the Second World War, is available on the Piermont Historical Society website.
Some of the older portions of the pier were also historical hazards, as the Tugboat “Osceola” found out in 1903.
Photos, from above: Piermont Pier as it looks today courtesy Synchronous New York; and the pier during its heyday courtesy Nyack Library Local History Room.
Very interesting story. My grandfather was a brakeman on the Erie RR.
Thx John, an intriguing, interesting bit of RRing history I had not known about before.
I’m amazed that the wooden pilings for the ship dock on the south side of the pier are still visible today. Over 170 years after being built.