A visual chronicle of suburban NJ
The Chatham Community Band had a concert yesterday!
The theme of the concert was “A Tribute to the Movies” (which is, incidentally, a recurring joke on one of my favorite podcasts. [FYI, they get to it within the first 3 minutes of that particular episode.] They enjoy mocking the multitudes of ways that Oscar ceremonies can waste time.)
For the whole movie tribute, they played songs derived from movies, and played clips from those movies on a projection screen in front of the band.
Pretty fun!
This particular CVS in Chatham (literally across the street from where my jazz band practices) made news last week for its two-month medication mix-up.
From December 20, 2011 to February 20, 2012, kids who were prescribed fluoride tablets were instead given a drug used to treat breast cancer (tamoxifen).
Experts are saying it probably won’t hurt anyone, but it’s still scary to know that this kind of mistake still happens.
For more information, here are some links to articles for your reading pleasure:
Nutt, A.E. (2012). “Chatham CVS gives children breast cancer medication in accidental pill mix-up.” The Star-Ledger. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/03/chatham_cvs_gives_children_bre.html.
Silvius, L. (2012). “Chatham CVS May Have Mixed Cancer Drugs with Fluoride Pills.” Madison Patch. http://madison.patch.com/articles/chatham-cvs-may-have-mixed-cancer-drugs-with-fluoride-pills.
According to this PDF, Chatham’s Milton Avenue School was built in 1948, with an addition completed in 2001.
That’s all I can tell you about the history, but here’s a link to their website, if you have questions about calendars or enrolling your kid or something.
It’s also right in front of the Chatham Borough Mulch Area, in case you were wondering.
This is probably a good fishing spot in the summer. I stumbled into some fishers last year right here (but I didn’t have the guts to ask for or take a portrait), and there are signs posted all over the area about trout fishing regulations. So. Apparently you can fish the Passaic River for trout, when the season is right.
I am not 100% sure how old this railroad bridge over the Passaic River is, but I’d guess late 1830s, since this branch of the Morris & Essex railroad was completed in 1838.
Because of all the trees, it’s hard to get a clear shot of the bridge nowadays, but the “enduring town landmark” (Cunningham 1997, 34) has long been a popular subject for local photographers:
c. 1900
c. 1916
Date unknown, probably c.1950-1990
References:
Cunningham, J.T. (1997). Images of America: Chatham. Arcadia Publishing: Dover, NH. ISBN 0738545619.
Treese, L. (2006). Railroads of New Jersey: Fragments of the Past in the Garden State Landscape. Stackpole Books: Mechanicsburg, PA. ISBN 0811732606.
(Submitted to Sunday Bridges.)
As continued from yesterday… in case you’ve forgotten, I’m talkin’ about this mostly-completed cloverleaf interchange/ overpass that doesn’t connect to any roads.
Once you find the little gravel-tracks that were clearly supposed to eventually be paved roads, you can just follow them up and find yourself on top of Route 24.
The cloverleaves, though not paved, have been curbed and graded.
From the tire tracks, my preliminary guess was that Triborough Rd. is currently being used as some kind of service road, since it’s really close to some PSE&G power lines, and this would be a convenient way to get trucks across Route 24.
But I had a conversation with a nearby resident (Steve!) who was taking his dog for a walk; he assured me this was pretty much publicly accessible land, and apparently the locals are really into driving their ATVs through here. (I saw one too, and Wikipedia mentions it, so it must be true.) I dunno. It could be service vehicles AND all-terrain vehicles.
Why do I refer to the overpass as “Triborough Road” if there isn’t actually any road associated with it? Apparently, as you drive along NJ 24, there is a sign posted on the bridge that labels it as such.
Aaaaaand that’s all I know about the abandoned Triborough Road overpass.
Sources:
Alpert, S. (n.d.). “New Jersey Roads – NJ 24.” Alps’ Roads. http://www.alpsroads.net/roads/nj/nj_24/ and http://www.alpsroads.net/roads/nj/cr_609/s.html.
Anderson, S. (2006). “NJ 24 Freeway.” The Roads of Metro New York. http://www.nycroads.com/roads/NJ-24/.
Ca3ey. (2007). “Abandoned ‘highway’ in Morris County.” Weird U.S. Message Board. http://theweirdusmessageboard.yuku.com/topic/1137/abanonded-highway-in-morris-county#.TyXo7mM9naI.
Wikipedia. (2012). “New Jersey Route 24.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower_Parkway and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey_Route_24.
At some point in the early-to-mid 1970s, construction began on a cloverleaf overpass for a road that was intended to connect NJ 24 to NJ 124. (124 is a main street through Chatham and Madison; 24 is a major freeway that runs parallel to 124; 24 wasn’t finished until 1992.)
But locals raised a fuss; apparently the plans for the new “Triborough Road” ran uncomfortably close to the Passaic River, so environmental concerns (as well as budgetary concerns) prevented the road from ever being constructed.
BUT THE INTERCHANGE WAS BUILT ANYWAY.
Thus: there is a mostly-constructed cloverleaf exchange, totally unused, totally unconnected to any roads, sitting in the middle of basically nowhere. (It’s on the border of Chatham and Florham Park, not far from Millburn’s Short Hills Mall.)
For all the trouble it took me to get to this thing, I’m going to stretch this out into two days, so… stay tuned! I’ll continue this tomorrow. (Click here for the next Abandoned Overpass post.)
Sources:
Alpert, S. (n.d.). “New Jersey Roads – NJ 24.” Alps’ Roads. http://www.alpsroads.net/roads/nj/nj_24/ and http://www.alpsroads.net/roads/nj/cr_609/s.html.
Anderson, S. (2006). “NJ 24 Freeway.” The Roads of Metro New York. http://www.nycroads.com/roads/NJ-24/.
Ca3ey. (2007). “Abandoned ‘highway’ in Morris County.” Weird U.S. Message Board. http://theweirdusmessageboard.yuku.com/topic/1137/abanonded-highway-in-morris-county#.TyXo7mM9naI.
Cunningham, J.T. (1997). Images of America: Chatham. Arcadia Publishing: Dover, NH. ISBN 0738545619.
Wikipedia. (2012). “New Jersey Route 24.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower_Parkway and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey_Route_24.
At some point, I was looking at a map, and I noticed a mysterious brown splotch in the middle of the woods.
“Clearly,” said I, “I must go and explore this mysterious brown splotch on the map.”
Turns out, it is the Chatham Borough Mulch Area [link to site]. Apparently you can bring your grasses, leaves, branches, dead trees, and other landscaping remnants here, where they can be recycled into mulch.
Groovy.
Remember last week, when I was all like “whooooaaaa, you can totally see New York from Summit!”? Do you? Well I was.
Now, there’s this road (Fairmount Avenue) in Chatham that I drive pretty often, and I can always see lights twinkling off in the distance, and I’d always assumed that I could see New York from Chatham, too.
BUT UPON CLOSER INSPECTION…
That’s just Summit off in the distance!
Those white buildings are part of the Merck complex, the big brick blob on the horizon is Overlook Hospital, and I can make out DeForest Methodist and the Summit Parking Garage, too.
If you look at a map of the area…
…you’ll note that Chatham is on the Third Watchung Mountain, while Summit is right on the tip of the Second Watchung Mountain.
Maybe you won’t note that immediately. The diagonal ridges on the map, from left to right, are the Third, Second, and the First Watchung Mountains.
…Bottom line, this means that Summit has a clear view of Manhattan (because Summit can peer through the Hobart Gap, which separates the north and south bits of the First Watchung Mountain), but Chatham can’t see Manhattan ‘cos Summit is sitting right in its way.
