History: Monmouth County and the Hudson Tubes (1903)

The 24 Dec 1903 edition of The Matawan Journal carried the following piece, attributed to The Freehold Transcript, predicting how ongoing construction of Hudson River tunnels would ease travel between Jersey City and New York City. These light rail tunnels, known as the Uptown Hudson Tubes, would benefit Monmouth County in many ways.

The first pair of tunnels were completed in 1906 and are part of today's PATH train system.


Bright Prospects Ahead

"The marvelous engineering enterprise now in progress in and about New York City may excite nothing more than a  passing interest in Monmouth County, but the Red Bank Register is quite right when, in looking ahead a bit it argued that one of them at least -- the tunnels connecting Jersey City and New York -- will prove a direct benefit to this county.  When it is realized that within the next three years any one may go from any one of the larger towns in the county to the heart of the city of New York practically without change of cars in perhaps less than an hour, it requires no imagination to understand just how much of an asset it will be in attracting outsiders to permanently locate here. Although it may be a harping upon the same old string, it is none the less true that there is no county in the State so fortunately situated so far as the future is concerned as Monmouth."