Liberty State Park | March & April 2020

Unease about COVID-19 had begun well before March, but the beginning of March is when things really started to feel serious, at least in New York City (where I work) and New Jersey (where I live). New Jersey’s first confirmed case was announced on March 4 and by March 7 New Jersey had declared a state of emergency. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on March 11. My job announced on March 12th that it would close at the end of the day on March 13. That Friday the 13th was the last day I commuted to New York City. By then the fear was palpable–I live in Jersey City but walked to Hoboken in the hope of finding a more empty PATH train and rode in with only five other people in the car on a rush hour morning. Jersey City closed its municipal parks on March 17, but Liberty State Park remained open.

I’m lucky in that I’m able to work from home, so my weekdays shifted to taking an early bike ride to Liberty State Park and then working; cutting out the time I’d normally spend commuting left me with well over an hour to comfortably walk around and look at birds each morning.

Tensions were rising though–more people were out on early-morning runs and things that never seemed very complicated at all, like crossing the narrow footbridge over Mill Creek* to enter the park, suddenly became perilous, as people trying to maintain distance from one another (or not) crossed paths. One morning towards the end of March I saw one jogger scream at another, “six f–ing feet!” on the bridge path.

*I should note another time that entering the park on foot or bike was problematic: Sandy hit on October 29, 2012, and the then-existing wooden bridge was destroyed in the storm. The replacement bridge didn’t open until May, 2013.

The CDC recommended mask use for everyone on April 3, and immediately many parkgoers adopted wearing them in the areas with more people passing through.

I kept my rides to the north end of the park for the most part, both to keep them relatively short and also because the walkway at the south end is narrow. I started skipping over the Grove of Remembrance area also as it felt like more and more people were out early, jogging on the gravel paths–and of the people out the joggers were the least likely to be masked. The Interpretive Center area was reliably quiet so most of my photos from this time were taken there.

On Tuesday, April 7, I returned from my morning bike ride to news that fences were being put up to block the entrances at Liberty State Park and the the state was closing all state and county parks, effective sunrise on April 8.