West Shore Railroad, Pier 7 Grain Elevator, Hudson River & Pershing Road vicinity, West New York, Hudson County, NJ

Significance: Pier 7 is significant as the remains of the last and largest grain elevator built by a railroad in the Port of New York. Its two million bushel capacity together with the 1.2 million bushel elevator on adjacent Pier 8 to the north, completed about fourteen years earlier gave the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad the largest storage facilities in the port capable of loading both ships and barges. The West Shore Railroad, subsidiary of the New York Central, operated both elevators at its large waterfront terminal in Weehauken and West New York, New Jersey. Although the Pier 7 substructure is demolished, the site retains substantially intact foundation and mechanical components unique among railroad grain handling sites at this port. Except for foundation pedestals at Pier 8, no fabric survives from any of the other such facilities which played an important role between c. 1870-1900 in capturing the port's once immense grain traffic from the Erie Canal. The slightly later construction of the Pier 7 elevator was the New York Central's ultimately unsuccessful response to changes in North American grain shipping patterns, changes which eroded the Port of New York's traffic share after c. 1890.
Survey number: HAER NJ-47