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Remedial Investigation Begins at Bergenfield Auto Parts
Company Site
Merger Proposed for Properties at Historic New Bridge
Landing
(04/41) TRENTON- Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bradley
M. Campbell today announced the start of a soil and ground
water investigation at the Bergenfield Auto Parts Company
to determine the extent of any contamination. Test results
also will help move forward productive reuse of the site
as DEP pursues preservation of this property under its
Green Acres program.
"DEP begins this week the necessary steps to protect
public health and the Hackensack River from contamination
at this site," said Commissioner Campbell. "DEP
will continue to negotiate with the property owner to merge
this important land parcel with several nearby historic
sites to fulfill a long-standing desire of the New Bridge
Landing Park Commission to better protect a valuable part
of our country's history. Assemblywoman Weinberg and County
Executive McNerney deserve high praise for pursuing expansion
of the adjacent historic site."
"We are delighted with this major step toward the
purchase of this property so important to our state's history," said
Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg. "We are thankful that
Commissioner Campbell took the necessary legal steps to
properly determine the extent of cleanup work needed on
this property. Commissioner Campbell's visit to New Bridge
Landing in January and the DEP's continued work show how
a partnership between the state, county and local governments
can produce wonderful results."
"Protecting and preserving our national heritage
is critically important," said Bergen County Executive
Dennis McNerney. "I applaud the state's efforts in
helping us save this historic treasure now and for future
generations."
The Bergenfield Auto Parts Company property is located
in River Edge Borough, Bergen County. The business is now
inactive, but the property had been used as an auto parts
recycling and storage business since about 1939. DEP's
remedial investigation will include soil and sediment sampling,
ground water monitoring, an ecological evaluation and wetland
mapping. The test results will be used to develop a cleanup
plan to properly address contamination found at the site.
Such work may be incorporated into future reuse of the
site. DEP expects to complete the remedial investigation
in three months followed by further negotiations with the
property owner for purchase of the land.
History of New Bridge Landing
A "New Bridge" was built at the narrows of the
Hackensack River in 1744, linking the roads leading to
Manhattan. Merchant Jan Zabriskie erected a sandstone mansion
nearby in 1752, overlooking his gristmill and wharf, where
farm produce, cordwood, and iron manufactured in the Jersey
Highlands was sent to city markets.
American and British armies repeatedly
fought for control of this strategic hamlet, making New
Bridge the Crossroads of the American Revolution. When
British and Hessian troops climbed the Palisades in November
1776, Washington led the outnumbered American garrison
at Fort Lee across the bridge to safety. Eyewitness Thomas
Paine immortalized "the
bridge over the Hackensack," in his famous essay,
the Crisis, which began with the words: "These are
the times that try men's souls." Washington later
made the Zabriskie House his headquarters in September
1780. At the war's end, the State of New Jersey presented
the Zabriskies' New Bridge estate to Major-General Baron
von Steuben, the Prussian Inspector-General of the Continental
Army.
The State of New Jersey acquired the Zabriskie-Steuben
House as a State Historic Site in 1928. The historic Demarest
House and Campbell-Christie House were moved onto the grounds,
respectively in 1956 and 1977. The Historic New Bridge
Landing Park Commission, established in 1995, coordinates
the efforts of the NJDEP's Division of Parks and Forestry,
the County of Bergen, the Bergen County Historical Society,
the Blauvelt-Demarest Foundation, the Borough of River
Edge, the Borough of New Milford and the Township of Teaneck
in preserving one of America's most historic places.
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