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The ''Binghamton'' is a retired ferryboat that operated from 1905 to 1967 transporting passengers across the Hudson River between Manhattan and Hoboken. She was built for the ''Hoboken Ferry Company'' of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad and was designed to carry 986 passengers plus vehicles.〔(Bergen County Historical Society Historic Site Markers ). Accessed January 7, 2009.〕 ''Binghamton'' has been permanently moored at Edgewater, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, since 1971. The US Department of the Interior added her to the National Register of Historic Places on July 9, 1982. Operated as a floating restaurant from 1975 to 2007, the vessel is now closed and awaiting reuse. The ''Binghamton'' is significant as possibly the last surviving steam ferry still afloat built to serve New York Harbor, the birthplace of commercial steam navigation, the birthplace of the double-ended steam ferry, and an area whose development was profoundly shaped by the introduction of vessels of this kind. ==Background== Until the Pennsylvania Railroad built Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan and tunneled under the Hudson River, all New York-bound rail lines from the west terminated at the New Jersey shoreline of New York Harbor. Accordingly, a number of independent and railroad-affiliated ferry companies provided passenger and light freight service across the harbor. One particular type of ferryboat, the "double-ender," was especially common in New York Harbor. Steam navigation met its first commercial success in New York Harbor, with the voyage of Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat (Clermont) from New York to Albany in 1807. Four years later, in 1811, John Stevens inaugurated what is thought to be the world's first steam ferry service on the Hudson River between Hoboken and Manhattan with the vessel ''Juliana''. The first American double-ended ferries appeared the following year with the paddle-wheelers ''Jersey'' and ''York'' of Robert Fulton's York & Jersey Steamboat Ferry Company.〔Hilton, George W. ''The Illustrated History of Paddle Steamers''. New York, 1976. p. 73.〕 Excellent for transporting vehicles, the double-enders were well adapted to New York Harbor, where there was considerable demand for speed and efficiency (vehicles could drive on-and-off from either end and time consuming turns were not necessary). It has been estimated that over 400 double-ended ferries operated in New York Harbor during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The peak years were 1906-1908 when approximately 150 double-ended ferries were in service in the Harbor.〔Hilton, George W. ''The Illustrated History of Paddle Steamers''. New York, 1976. p. 76.〕 The Hoboken Ferry Company was a subsidiary of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W). The company had a fleet of six ferryboats when it ceased operations in 1967. These vessels took their names from principal stations on the DL&W RR's main line from Hoboken, NJ to Buffalo, NY. Three of these - the ''Elmira'', ''Scranton'', and ''Pocono'' (née ''Scandinavia'') - ''Binghamtons sisters, were also built in 1905. (Another, ''Ithaca'', was destroyed by fire in 1946.) Of these, ''Binghamton'' is now the only survivor. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Binghamton (ferryboat)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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