JaxParks

The New Berlin Boat Ramp is located along the St. Johns River, in the New Berlin section of north Jacksonville. Dr. Henry Von Balsan purchased fifty acres along the St. Johns River at Yellow Bluff in 1860, and later named the area New Berlin after his native town in Germany. During different periods of the Civil War, Confederate and Union soldiers constructed batteries at Yellow Bluff (which is now a state historical site). By the 1880’s about one hundred residents lived at New Berlin, which consisted of several stores, churches, a post office, and a cemetery. Families have remained in the area for generations, and the state has designated New Berlin an “enclave”, thus protecting it from industrial zoning. The City considered closing the ramp in 1994, but local fishermen requested that the facility remain open until an alternate site could be found and developed.