Jersey Roads

Portal Bridge Cutover: NJ Transit Trims Trains and Sends Weekday Midtown Direct Riders to Hoboken

For about five weeks, the Portal Bridge cutover cuts Newark-to-Secaucus NJ Transit service in half and ends weekday Midtown Direct trains at Hoboken. Your commute now comes with a boat option.

The old bridge gets a retirement party. Your commute gets an adventure. Illustration: State of Laughs

I didn't know a train commute could end with a boat ride. Then I learned about the Portal Bridge.

Starting Sunday, Oct. 11, NJ Transit and Amtrak began moving the last track off the old Portal Bridge in Kearny and onto its replacement, the Portal North Bridge, and the work is expected to run until about Nov. 15.

Brick Township Bans New Roosters, and I Had No Idea Jersey Had a Rooster Problem

Crowing is Brick's second-biggest complaint, according to the township. The roosters already there get to stay. New ones don't.

A cartoon mustang in a chef's hat parachutes over a dark football field, its lantern beaming light as a sleepy cow squints up.

Sussex Tech Football in Sparta Has No Lights, So Its Friday Night Games Happen on Saturday Afternoon

The Sussex Tech Mustangs in Sparta have no field lights, so their Friday night football happens Saturday afternoon. Now they're the last New Jersey school in a national field-makeover vote, open through Sunday, Oct. 25.

Two huge mobs in 1869 street clothes collide in a dust cloud chasing one ball as onlookers gasp.

Did You Know? The First College Football Game Was Rutgers vs. Princeton in New Brunswick, 1869

Rutgers 6, Princeton 4, New Brunswick, Nov. 6, 1869: widely recognized as college football's very first game. Two Jersey schools invented a sport by arguing. Of course they did.

Read next