Goethals Bridge

The Goethals Bridge /ˈɡɒθəlz/ connects Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Staten Island, New York, in the United States. It crosses a strait known as Arthur Kill. Operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), the span was one of the first structures built by the PANYNJ. On the New Jersey side it is located south of Newark Liberty International Airport. The bridge has been grandfathered into Interstate 278, and named for Major General George Washington Goethals, who supervised construction of the Panama Canal and was the first consulting engineer of the PANYNJ.

Design

A steel truss cantilever design by John Alexander Low Waddell, who also designed the Outerbridge Crossing, the Goethals is 672 ft (205 m) long central span, 7,109 feet (2,168 m) long in total, 62 feet (19 m) wide, has a clearance of 135 feet (41.1 m) and has four lanes for traffic. The Port Authority had $3 million of state money and raised $14 million in bonds to build the Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing; the Goethals bridge construction began on September 1, 1925 and cost $7.2 million. It and the Outerbridge Crossing opened on June 29, 1928. The Goethals Bridge replaced three ferries and is the immediate neighbor of the Arthur Kill Rail Bridge. Its unusual mid-span height was a requirement of the New Jersey ports. The bridge was named for Major General George Washington Goethals, who supervised construction of the Panama Canal and was the first consulting engineer of the PANYNJ.

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania, and on the southwest by Delaware. New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state, but the 11th-most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jersey lies entirely within the combined statistical areas of New York City and Philadelphia and is the second-wealthiest U.S. state by median household income as of 2014.

New Jersey was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, with historical tribes such as the Lenape along the coast. In the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes made the first European settlements. The English later seized control of the region, naming it the Province of New Jersey after the largest of the Channel Islands, Jersey, and granting it as a colony to Sir George Carteret and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. New Jersey was the site of several decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century.

Staten Island

Staten Island /ˌstætən ˈaɪlənd/ is one of the five boroughs (counties) of New York City, in the state of New York, in the United States. In the southwest of the city, Staten Island is the southernmost part of both the city and state of New York, with Conference House Park at the southern tip of the island and the state. The borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With a 2014 Census-estimated population of 473,279, Staten Island is the least populated of the boroughs but is the third-largest in area at 58 sq mi (150 km²). The borough is coextensive with Richmond County, and until 1975 was officially the Borough of Richmond. Its flag was later changed to reflect this, though the official seal remains unchanged. Staten Island has been sometimes called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government.

The North Shore — especially the neighborhoods of St. George, Tompkinsville, Clifton, and Stapleton — is the most urban part of the island; it contains the officially designated St. George Historic District and the St. Paul’s Avenue-Stapleton Heights Historic District, which feature large Victorian houses. The East Shore is home to the 2.5-mile (4 km) F.D.R. Boardwalk, the fourth-longest in the world. The South Shore, site of the 17th-century Dutch and French Huguenot settlement of developed rapidly beginning in the 1960s and 1970s; it is mostly suburban in character. The West Shore is the least populated and most industrial part of the island.

Bridge

A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles without closing the way underneath such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle. There are many different designs that each serve a particular purpose and apply to different situations. Designs of bridges vary depending on the function of the bridge, the nature of the terrain where the bridge is constructed and anchored, the material used to make it, and the funds available to build it.

Etymology

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the origin of the word bridge to an Old English word brycg, of the same meaning. The word can be traced directly back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰrēw-. The word for the card game of the same name has a different origin.

History

The first bridges made by humans were probably spans of cut wooden logs or planks and eventually stones, using a simple support and crossbeam arrangement. Some early Americans used trees or bamboo poles to cross small caverns or wells to get from one place to another. A common form of lashing sticks, logs, and deciduous branches together involved the use of long reeds or other harvested fibers woven together to form a connective rope capable of binding and holding together the materials used in early bridges.

Outerbridge Crossing

The Outerbridge Crossing is a cantilever bridge which spans the Arthur Kill. The "Outerbridge", as it is commonly known, connects Perth Amboy, New Jersey, with Staten Island, New York, and carries NY 440 and NJ 440, each road ending at the respective state border. The Outerbridge Crossing is one of three bridges connecting New Jersey with Staten Island, with the Bayonne Bridge (which also carries NJ 440 and NY 440) in Bayonne and the Goethals Bridge in Elizabeth being the other two.

Description

The bridge was named for Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge, the first chairman of the then-Port of New York Authority and a resident of Staten Island. Rather than call it the "Outerbridge Bridge", the span was labeled a "crossing", but many New Yorkers and others mistakenly assume the name comes from the fact that it is the most remote bridge in New York City and the southernmost crossing in New York state.

The bridge is of a steel cantilever construction, designed by John Alexander Low Waddell and built under the auspices of the Port of New York Authority, now the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which currently operates it. It opened simultaneously with the Goethals Bridge on June 29, 1928. Both spans have similar designs. Neither bridge saw high traffic counts until the opening of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 1964. Traffic counts on both bridges were also depressed due to the effects of the Great Depression and World War II.