Hoboken's Original Ferry Terminal Re-Opens

For the first time in 40 years commuters will be able to take a ferry from Hoboken to New York City from the original ferry slips at the Hoboken terminal after passing through the original waiting room.

"Hoboken is the birth place of the ferry," said Mayor Dawn Zimmer, adding that with the completion of the ferry waiting room, people will be able to "literally walk through history."

Elected officials, representatives from NJ Transit, New York Waterway and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey joined together on Wednesday morning, to celebrate the opening of the historic ferry terminal in downtown Hoboken and officially cut the ribbon.

The last ferry took off from the original slips in 1967, something Freeholder Anthony Romano still remembers vividly.

"I was on one of the last ferries in 1967," he said. "I went with my mother and father to New York."

Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise attended the event—which also included an inaugural ferry ride around the Erie Lackawanna terminal—and called Hudson County the "economic engine" of New Jersey. He also looked back on the important role ferries played on Sept. 11, 2001, when bridges and tunnels were closed.

"I can't wait to get on one of these boats," he said.

Every day roughly 58,000 commuters travel to and from Hoboken, using the different modes of public transit. Hoboken also has the highest rate of people using public transit in the country.

"This is like our Grand Central Station," Department of Transportation Commissioner James Simpson said on Wednesday morning about the Erie Lackwanna Terminal, which was built in 1907.

The renovations of the terminal cost about $120 million. The waiting room also has a second floor, which is currently empty and in disrepair. It's unclear what will happen to that part of the waiting room, which was called the "grand concourse."

Romano said he hoped that future renovations will include the second floor. Meanwhile he praised the renovations and said that "it's amazing" to see how the terminal was renovated.

Of all people there, DeGise may have put it best.

"Hoboken," DeGise said, "is a hell of a town."