Then & Now

Photo courtesy Alexander Allan Collection/North Arlington Public Library
Photo courtesy Alexander Allan Collection/North Arlington Public Library

 

 

Photo by Ron Leir
Photo by Ron Leir

 

The date is sometime during World War II (the front of the bus bears a ‘Buy War Bonds’ message). The place is the intersection of the Belleville Turnpike and Ridge Road/Kearny Ave. The view is looking east down the hill toward Schuyler Ave. Just like in the 1940s, the building on the northeast corner houses a restaurant on the ground fl oor. It used to be Sally’s; today it is a Chinese eatery. And the bus? We can’t make out its number, but the route was ‘Kearny-Rutherford via Ridge Road.’ Historical note: The road that became the Belleville Pike was the fi rst in North Arlington, laid out in the early 1700s by Dutch settler Arent Schuyler. He needed a route for wagons to carry ore from his copper mine in the meadows, over the hill and down to a dock on the Passaic River.

– Karen Zautyk

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