Undercliff Beach — Attraction in Englewood Cliffs

It is unfortunate that a lot of people automatically assume that a place with "beach" in the name is still 'the beach,' without any research (see the black and white photo). This was a super-popular beach back in the 1920s up through the 1930s when it was a short subway/trolley + ferry ride away for millions of sweltering New Yorkers living in un-air conditioned apartments---most of them without a car.

After completion of the GW Bridge and the explosion in car ownership following the Second World War, the ferries were discontinued and a trip to the Rockaways or the Jersey Shore became, I suppose, a more appealing alternative to the brown, and at the time, polluted waters, of the Hudson. So it and the several other named beaches in Palisades Interstate Park are no longer swimming beaches or maintained as such.

Even so, this remains a beautiful spot I visit via paddle board from Hells Kitchen and my home port of Manhattan Kayak + SUP (Pier 84, Hudson River Park---about 11 Miles away). These beautiful native stone ruins are what’s left of the Undercliff Beach bath house built in 1922. Other bath houses were built later as part of federal works projects during the Great Depression. For a brief period in the 20s and 30s hundreds of thousands of people came here, many from New York and to a few other beaches, including Bloomers, Ross Dock, and Alpine, to swim in the summer. They arrived via ferries from NYC, but completion of the GW Bridge, WW2 and other factors meant the end of the ferries and the number of swimmers and visitors steadily declined. The black and white image comes from (https://www.njpalisades.org/undercliff.html) and shows what the site looked like at the height of its popularity in 1932. And another that shows the view from the north where canoeists were allowed to land their boats (https://www.njpalisades.org/paddlingOver.html). Both of these are from the NJ Palisades dot org blog, which has a lot of great stories about the Palisades, its history as a park and before as well as the many colorful characters that have made up that history. You can visit a very similar structure that has been restored and remains in use up at the Alpine Boat Basin, an added bonus being able to see The 1760s-era Kearney House. https://goo.gl/maps/7pA7jxpDg577dVc68

If you are arriving as a paddler, here are a few things to note: There is a good, small, but sandy beach where it is easy for kayaks and paddle boards to land. The clearly well-tended grass surrounding the ruins makes for a phenomenal place to have a picnic. Keep in mind there are no facilities or running water, so you have to bring your own. In the summer months there is good summer fare to be had a half mile south at Englewood Boat Basin's...

It’s nice but pretty small. The ruins are good if you want to take pictures. There is a decent picnic area just above the beach where you can park. Overall though, didn’t have much of an impact either way on the shore trail. The trail itself was beautiful because of the...

Most of the times the beach is relatively quiet, with people passing by time to time along the waterfront trail. Be very careful on the stone steps onto the beach, they are covered in sand/dirt and can be...