User:Mitchazenia/West 8th Street station

West 8th Street (formerly known as Bergen Point) was a station on the Central Railroad of New Jersey in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey. The station was the flagship stop in Bayonne, one of five in the city. Service began on August 1, 1864 as part of a small steam railroad extension of the Central Railroad that was isolated until the construction of the Newark Bay Bridge. West 8th Street's masonry depot was built in 1891, replacing a smaller structure. This station lasted until the late 1970s, when construction of Route 169 freeway right-of-way required movement of the depot. Current service at the station was is for the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail, with a station similar in design was built on the site of the old CNJ station.

Construction
The line that would serve West 8th Street station originally served only municipalities west of Newark Bay. The Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), a merger of the Elizabethtown and Somerville Railroad and Somerville and Easton Railroad, served from Elizabethport station in Elizabeth to Scranton. In 1860, an act was approved by the New Jersey State Legislature to move the service to a ferry in Communipaw. During this time period, there was no bridge across Newark Bay to connect Elizabethport and Bergen Point. In the meantime, construction began on a short line from the future site of the Communipaw Terminal to Bergen Point, where a stop was established at West 8th Street. Service on this stretch began on August 1, 1864. A wooden drawbridge across Newark Bay began construction in 1861 and finished on July 29, 1864 at a cost of $325,000 (1865 USD).

In 1891, the station at West 8th Street was rebuilt by architect Frank L. Bodine. A new masonry depot was built on the west side of the railroad tracks (Avenue C and West 8th Street). The depot was 73x38.5 ft long with twelve columns and 4 pillars. This new depot also had a roof of 96 ft. The depot included a new tower of a 10 ft in every direction in square with a 24 ft roof 36 ft high. During the construction, waiting rooms were separated by gender, with one for men (and others) and one specifically for women. A subway tunnel from each side of the tracks was also built. The western depot had an extension put on it for the shelter roof in 1906. This resulted in a new extension to cover a news kiosk and stairs to the shelter on the eastern side of the tracks. The station facilities included a yardmaster's office and a freight depot of 22x61 ft in size.

1947 renovation–demolition
In May 1947, the CNJ announced that they would renovate the West 8th Street station completely as part of a program to modernize stations and passenger coaches. The railroad hired Howard Ketchum, Inc. of New York City to engineer a new station design.