- This article refers to the North River, the lower section of the Hudson. For other meanings, see North River (disambiguation).
North River describes the southernmost portion of the Hudson River, between the states of New Jersey and New York in the United States of America. The origin of the name North River is generally attributed to the Dutch, in describing the names of the rivers in their American Nieuw Nederland colony as designating what is now the Hudson as the North River, the Connecticut as the Fresh River, and the Delaware as the South River. Another story of its origin, much less circulated, has it that the earliest explorers, observing the two large streams joining at the tip of Manhattan Island, designated one the "North" River and the other the "East" River, based on their observed geographical directions from New York Harbor. In modern commercial usage, however, the North River is the part of the river from the Hudson River's mouth to approximately the "bend" where the Hudson River turns from south-southwest to south at about 30th Street in Manhattan, and near the northern boundary of Hoboken, New Jersey. Piers along the Hudson shore of Manhattan were known as North River piers, even if upstream of the "bend" and were designated in shipping notices as (for example) "Pier 14, N.R." Piers above 14th street have a number equaling the street number plus 40. Thus North River Pier 41 is at Houston Street. Pier 81, used by Circle Line is at West 41st Street, and North River Pier 94 of the New York Cruise Terminal is at West 54th Street. The term North River was used in many news articles about the arrival in 1912 of the RMS Carpathia with survivors of the RMS Titanic to the Chelsea Piers between 23rd Street and Little West 12th Street. The massive North River Wastewater Treatment Plant opened in phases between 1986 and 1991 on 137th to 145th Street in upper Manhattan. However usage except by maritime enthusiasts has dwindled with the demise of ocean-going terminals in lower Manhattan and Hoboken. In 1998 the city and state of New York opened the joint 550 acre Hudson River Park which stretches from 59th Street to the Battery. Hagstrom Company maps, generally considered the standard in the New York metropolitan area, formerly designated this lower part of the Hudson as North River and above that as Hudson River. Recent editions of these maps following the acquisition of Hagstrom by the Langenscheidt Publishing Group omit the North River name.
