With a gazebo on its northern tip and a semicircular veteran’s memorial on the southern end, the half-mile-long 12-foot-wide promenade of pink and gray concrete overlooks Lower Manhattan and the Verranzano-Narrows Bridge from Union Beach, New Jersey.
The promenade rests on top of a massive bulkhead designed to protect the town from the Raritan Bay in the event of storms, such as the occasional northeaster that comes up the coast.
Located not far from the Garden State Parkway heading towards Sandy Hook, this small Monmouth County, New Jersey bay town of 6,745 people (estimated: 2003) was incorporated by an act of the New Jersey legislature in 1925.
As part of the Bayshore Regional Strategic Plan with eight other area communities, the emphasis for residents is on the traditional downtown areas, maritime history and the natural beauty of the Raritan bayshore coastline. Union Beach has a quiet bay beach with a well maintained boardwalk. Visitors frequent the local facilities and enjoy fishing, crabbing and boating.
The Raritan Bay's influence on the borough is seen in its housing: single-story one-, two- or three-bedroom bungalows built in the 1910's through the 30's as summer homes make up about a third of the structures, and most of these homes are within a dozen blocks of the beach. Many of them have been expanded and are now two-story houses. Newer split levels, bi-levels and colonials, dating from the 1950’s to today, make up the balance of the homes.
Union Beach began in 1676 when Richard Hartshorne purchased the area from the Leni Lenape native Americans. By 1776 the area was divided into farms, including that of George Poole, who, with his 15-year-old son Richard, joined the Monmouth County militia, to fight on the colonial side. Poole Avenue is named in honor of the family.
Union Beach was formed in 1925 when it split off from Middletown Township. The building of the Garden State Parkway, major storms, and other factors brought hard times to Union Beach, but the 1980’s saw the beginning of the redevelopment of the Raritan and Sandy Hook areas, and Union Beach has benefited from the renewal with the construction of its new bulkhead, improved roadways, reduction of industry pollution, elimination of sewage flowing into Raritan Bay through the efforts of the Bayshore Municipal Sewage Authority, and the determination of area residents to make a far more attractive environment for all concerned.
Monmouth County converted the unused Jersey Central Railroad track bed into the Henry Hudson Trail, a nine-mile-long bike path that begins in Aberdeen and runs south through Union Beach to Atlantic Highlands.
Union Beach is a New Jersey bayshore town with a vision for the future – and that vision is taking shape because of its people.
Important Telephone Numbers:
Municipal: 732-264-2277. Police/Fire/Medical Emergency: 911
