Goethals Bridge

The Goethals Bridge connects Elizabeth, New Jersey to Staten Island, New York, near the Howland Hook Marine Terminal, Staten Island, New York over the Arthur Kill. Operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the span was one of the first structures built by the authority. 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 Port Authority.

Goethals Bridge

Carries                                  4 lanes of I-278

Crosses                                 Arthur Kill Locale Elizabeth, New Jersey and Howland Hook,

                                             Staten Island, New York City

Design                                  Cantilever bridge

Longest span                        204.83 m (672 ft)

Total length                          2,164.08 m (7,100 ft)

Width                                   18.90 m (62 ft)

Vertical clearance                4.3 m (14 ft)

Clearance below                  42.67 m (140 ft)

Opening date                       June 29, 1928

A steel truss cantilever design by John Alexander Low Waddell (the same person who designed the Outerbridge Crossing), the bridge 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.

Connecting onto the New Jersey Turnpike, it is one of the main routes for traffic between there and Brooklyn via the Staten Island Expressway and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Until the bridge to Brooklyn was completed in 1964 the Goethals Bridge never turned a profit. The same happened to the Outerbridge Crossing. The total traffic in 2002 was 15.68 million vehicles.