About a week ago I rode on the updated New York Waterway, the Manhattan/New Jersey Hudson River commuter ferry system owned by real estate developer Arthur Imperatore.
It had been about six months since I had used the ferry. Previously, NY Waterway used fairly modest port facilites for emabarkation from New York and New Jersey. On the Jersey side, an old auto ferry from the 1960s was used which was parked along a pier in Weehawken, and it was used for over 10 years as the New York Waterway passenger terminal until finally it was decided that it and the terminal on the Manhattan side, a small house-like structure behind Javits Center on 39th Street on Pier 79, was no longer sufficient for handling the volume of traffic and the new routes that had been added over the years, such Yankee Stadium, Wall Street and the World Financial Center.
The new facilities on both sides are modern, high tech, and look like something out of a near-future Sci-Fi movie or sophisticated Euro industrial design. They also are much bigger and can accomodate a much greater flow of passengers, and have better rest and observation areas for taking a load off, which the other facilities didn’t really have. They also have superior MARSEC status now, given the change in times.
Inside the new terminal at Weehawken.
Big LCD monitors update you on the arrival and departure of the ferries.
A view of the Manhattan skyline from Weehawken.
The inside of the Manhattan Port Imperial Terminal, at around midnight. The building has an unusual construction in that it had to be wrapped around an existing massive ventilation tower for the Lincoln Tunnel which crosses the Hudson river directly below the building.
Off The Broiler 
Jason,
I’m suprised that no one asked why you were taking pictures. At Port Authority in NYC if anyone takes uses a camera/cellphone or any other picture taking device and a police officer doesn’t stop them, commuters usually find an officer and report the “criminal”. Sadly, it’s a different world since 9/11. Aside from that, many of my co-workers have stopped using the ferry because Arthur hiked the fares after he completed the terminal – way too costly on a monthly basis for the average working joe.
[…] Recently, to go along with the sprightly new image of the recently re-developed New York Waterway, the restaurant’s owner and local transporation and construction tycoon Arthur Iperatore brought in Culinary Institute of America graduate Michael Haimowitz to completely re-vamp the restaurant’s menu (which clearly was becoming something of an old, tired dinosaur) into that of a destination restaurant with cuisine that was the equal of New York City’s best casual dining restaurants. And it gets even better — not only is the food great, and the view incredible, but they’re offering it at New Jersey prices, aggressive with the better destination restaurants in the area. Hudson Valley Foie Gras for $17? D’Artagnan Berkshire double cut pork chop for $28? Big juicy locally caught dry scallops for $26? The list goes on and on. And if you live in New York City, you can dine there by taking the NY Waterway across from 39th Street, a five minute ride, and then taking a free short shuttle bus from Port Imperial. […]