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THE HISTORIC 1911 LAKE
HOPATCONG TRAIN STATION, LANDING, NEW JERSEY
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During 2024 local
residents and commuters will start to see the construction of the first
half of the new Landing Bridge. It may appear to be threatening
the landmark Hopatcong Train Station, but Fear Not - the building will
not be touched!! Built in 1911 to replace an older and smaller station at track level, the Station was part of the Lackawanna Cutoff Railway project of the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad to smooth out and shorten train travel to Pennsylvania and western New York. The building has stood for more than a century and first served as a train station, then with a decline in use in the 1970's, a real estate office, and several different retail stores up thru 2014. It is now home to the Lake Hopatcong Foundation, a nonprofit organization safeguarding New Jersey’s largest lake. |
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The train station building is alongside Landing Road and the New Jersey Transit rail line, and was historically where visitors would arrive during Lake Hopatcong’s heyday as a resort community from the 1880's thru the 1940's. Today, the station remains one of the first structures visitors and residents see as they approach the southern end of Lake Hopatcong, and one of only a handful of prominent historical structures that remain from the lake’s resort days. The Train Station in 1915, with the Morris County Traction Co. Trolley in view. The Trolley line went from Morristown, through Denville, Dover, Succasunna, Ledgewood and over the Landing Bridge up to Bertrand Island Park. Trolley service ended in 1928. |
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THE ORIGINAL 1886 TRAIN STATION
| Pictured here under the original Landing bridge is the the 1886 Train Station. The bridge carried horses, wagons and pedestrians over the train tracks and the Morris Canal. The bridge was made of iron with wooden planks as a roadway. It was built in the mid-1880s, roughly coinciding with the construction of the station seen under the bridge, the first Lake Hopatcong Train Station for pedestrians. People could walk to the middle of the bridge, then take a stairway in the center down to track level. This view looks toward the northwest, just BEYOND the cluster of buildings at right is approximately where the current Verizon sub-station sits. |
| This photo was taken from the bridge, and shows how the Morris Canal ran right up beside the train station platform. A person could get off the train coming from the urban areas just east, cross the platform and get on a launch to be taken through the canal lock up into Lake Hopatcong and its' resort hotels. Hand colored photo circa 1904, looking westward toward Port Morris and Netcong. |
| This sepia photo is about 20 years after the first iron bridge image, it dates to circa 1909. The train station shed has been extended, and we can date the photo to the interval between 1908 when the current concrete Landing bridge was built, seen behind the iron bridge, to 1911 when the old wooden station was torn down after the new Station was built. |
More Train Station Photos
Looks like the Official Station
Dedication Photo, crew front & center,1911
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A later photo, circa 1938, year round housing started to be built, and people were able to 'commute' to jobs east of the lake in Dover, Morristown and Newark. The concrete towers and walkway spanning the tracks were torn down in the 1970's. |
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The
Lake Hopatcong Foundation deserves your support!! LAKE HOPATCONG FOUNDATION Office Phone is 973-663-2500 - General Information e-mail is info@lakehopatcongfoundation.org Join Your Neighbors! Click here to go to LAKE HOPATCONG FOUNDATION website |
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