In the map of the new city prepared by the Associates, the streets were
laid out at right angles and one thousand three hundred and forty-four
lots were laid down. The eastern boundary was Hudson street, which was
laid in the water with the exception of a small piece of upland that
extended outward at Morris street. The southern boundary was South
street, later called Mason street, and a few years ago vacated by
the city. Harsimus was the northern boundary. It was nearly circular
upland, of which the greatest extent was from one hundred feet north
of Montgomery street to one hundred and seventy-five feet south of
Essex street. More than half of the site for the proposed city was
marsh and land under water. The westerly boundary was a line drawn
from the east side of South street to a point near the corner of
First and Washington streets. It was the plan of the Associates that
the western border should front on a tide water canal, an island city,
bordered by piers and docks and surrounded by navigable water. The
Jersey City Journal's History of Jersey City claims that the city has
lost commercial prestige by the failure to carry out that idea, also
that another and even greater blunder was committed by the filling in
of Mill Creek, which had been navigable by small sloops. The new city
met with many discouragements; New York claimed jurisdiction over all
lands under water up to low water mark on the Jersey shore. Alexander
Hamilton and Joseph Ogden Hoffman, as counsel to the Associates, gave a
guarded answer that New York had no right to land under water at Paulus
Hook. This boundary dispute was not settled until 1889. Mr. Van Vorst
would not accept an equivalent for the annuity, which affected deeds
and prevented many from purchasing the lots.
In March, 1804, Colonel John Stevens, who had bought the confiscated
estate of William Bayard, known as Castile, founded the city of
Hoboken. One of the first measures was to build a road to Hackensack
and to the Five Corners to bring travel from the different villages
to his ferry. In December, 1804, the Associates organized the Newark
Turnpike Company, which built the road now known as Newark avenue from
Warren street to the Hackensack river. Through lower Jersey City it was
a macademized road through a marsh. Previous to this there were but
three roads in Harsimus--one the causeway leading to Paulus Hook now
known as Newark avenue, second "the road to church and mill." This
followed what is now the line of Henderson street, along the shore of
Harsimus Cove to First street, where a bend carried it to the corner of
Grove street and Newark avenue; thence it followed the present line of
Newark avenue to Monmouth street, along the foot of a sand hill which
was the site of an earthwork outpost erected by the British during the
Revolution. The last vestige of this hill, at the corner of Mercer and
Brunswick streets, was removed in 1894. From this hill, nearly on the
line of Railroad avenue, the road ran to Prior's Mill on Mill Creek
just below the Point of Rocks, thence by what is now Academy street to
the village of Bergen. The third road began near the Van Vorst house on
Henderson street and ran northwesterly to a point where Jersey avenue
and Second street now intersect; thence at an angle to the base of
Bergen Hill, where it crossed the road built by Stevens to Hackensack.
[Illustration: PRIOR'S MILL.]
The Associates built several little piers and a retaining wall along
the east side of Hudson street from Grand to Essex, which served as a
wharf for light draught vessels. They partly graded several streets
and set out along them some six hundred shade trees, among them
some Lombardy poplars, of which almost the only survivor is, or was
recently, still standing near Mills' Oakum works on Wayne street.
Lombardy poplars were introduced into this country by Andre Michaux, a
French botanist, who came here in 1786 with letters from Lafayette to
Washington. He was authorized by the New Jersey Legislature to acquire
an alien's title to two hundred acres of land and to "establish a
Botanical Garden at Bergen." His place was known as the "Frenchman's
Garden," and is now included in the "Macpelah Cemetery." The Associates
reserved land for churches, a school, a shipyard and a public market.
They urged Robert Fulton to establish his works in Jersey City and
sold to him a block of ground for $1,000 on five years time without
interest. The deed was dated November 3d, 1804. His foundry was on the
corner of Green and Morgan streets, with a dry dock in front of it;
here he built his first machinery for propelling a vessel by steam. The
first steam boilers were of copper and wood was used for fuel.