Status: Somewhat abandoned/many buildings being reused by businesses.

I was never aware of the 138 acre Curtiss-Wright company industrial complex until a fellow explorer took me there. I have to admit, I wasn’t thrilled about exploring the facility, but after my visit there and learning a little bit about the history, I was actually glad I did!

The abandoned Curtiss-Wright factory was featured in an issue of Weird NJ where I was able to read up on its compelling history. The company, founded in 1929, designed, made, and tested engines used in airplanes in World War II and beyond. In fact, not only did the Germans base their designs on the Curtiss-Wright engines, but so did the French, British, and Soviets. Curtiss-lWright had a few different factory locations throughout New Jersey, but the one built in 1942 in Wood-Ridge was by far the largest and served as their headquarters. It was the biggest aircraft facility in all of America and such famous aircrafts as the Enola Gay, which dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, had its engines built in this very complex. To protect from a potential attack, men armed with machine guns stood in towers to guard the complex, which had a reinforced concrete roof.

Curtiss-Wright later built jet engines used during the Korean War and then was used in the 70s to build turbine generators. The plant finally closed in 1983.

It was interesting to wander around and explore this plant that has now been abandoned for about 20 years, and there were many different pieces of machinery that I couldn’t identify. I believe Marcal owned and operated in this facility for a while after Curtiss-Wright was gone, so it’s possible that some of these strange machines were used for making paper. I’ve included many pictures for you to enjoy, but if there are no descriptions or they’re incorrect, it’s because I either don’t know what it is that’s pictured or I’m just taking an educated guess. So, I give you a grab bag of pictures.

I’ve heard rumors of there being a network of tunnels and bomb shelters that run beneath the Curtiss-Wright complex, but we didn’t happen to run across any during our exploration. If this is in fact true, perhaps this is an adventure for another time.

- Ember, 2003