These photographs from the Hoboken Public Library Historic Photography Collection were taken in the 1880s. If you’re thinking that things looked snowier, colder, and icier back then, you’re right. Dr. Alan Blumberg, director of the Center for Maritime Systems at Stevens Institute of Technology, says, “There is a lot of evidence that the climate is getting warmer and warmer.” If you believe in climate change, that’s no surprise. “The snow and coldness were normal back then,” he says. “And now the warmth is abnormal. There are fewer cold days, and winters will get milder in the future.” The river itself, he says, which is saltier downriver than upriver, may never have frozen completely. “It freezes near the banks first because the river moves faster in the middle,” Blumberg says, “and there is more freezing as you go upriver because it’s harder to freeze salt water than fresh water.”
Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
