• New York 511 (Conditions and Traffic Cameras)
  
• New Jersey 511 (Conditions and Traffic Cameras)
  

This 2020 photo shows the new Goethals Bridge -- a twin cable-stay span -- looking west from Staten Island across the Arthur Kill towards Elizabeth, NJ. (Photo by Dan Murphy.)

OLD BRIDGE:
Type of bridge:
Construction started:
Opened to traffic:
Length of main span:
Length of side spans:
Length of main and side spans:
Total length of bridge and approaches:
Width of bridge:
Number of traffic lanes:
Clearance at mid-span above mean high water:
Cost of original structure:

Cantilever
September 1, 1925
June 29, 1928
672 feet
240 feet
1,152 feet
7,109 feet (2,167 meters)
62 feet
4 lanes
135 feet
$7,200,000

NEW BRIDGE:
Type of bridge
Construction started
Opened to traffic (eastbound span)
Opened to traffic (westbound span)
Length of each main span
Length of side spans
Length of main and side spans
Total length of bridge and approaches
Height of towers 
Width of bridge (westbound)
Width of bridge (eastbound) meters)
Width of bridge (both bridges, including center reservation)
Number of traffic lanes
Number of cable stays
Clearance at mid-span above mean high water
Cost of original structure

Cable-stayed
May 7, 2014
June 10, 2017
May 20, 2018
950 feet (289.6 meters)
240 feet (73.2 meters)
1,152 feet (73.2 meters)
7,109 feet (2,167 meters)
272 feet (82.9 meters)
77.5 feet (23.6 meters)
67.5 feet (20.6 meters)

210 feet (64.0 meters)
6 lanes
144 cable stays (72 on each span)
138 feet (42.1 meters)
$1,500,000,000

FROM ELIZABETH TO HOWLAND HOOK: Since 1868, bills to secure a bridge, or a series of bridges between Staten Island and New Jersey had been introduced in the New York and New Jersey state legislatures. The 1890 construction of the Arthur Kill railroad bridge, near the current site of the Goethals Bridge, extended the industrial growth of the Newark-Elizabeth area into the Howland Hook section of Staten Island. However, the bridge exclusively served freight traffic. Three ferries, all of which were being taxed beyond their capacities, served passenger traffic between Staten Island and New Jersey.

New solutions were sought to deal with the surging demand in automobile and truck travel after World War I. In 1923, the New York and New Jersey Bridge and Tunnel Commission issued a report calling for the reconstruction of a combination highway and railroad bridge between Staten Island and Elizabeth to replace the existing railroad swing bridge. The report also called for the construction of a highway bridge between Staten Island and Perth Amboy.

Since the channel was shallow, and a low-level bridge was thought to be the solution, the cost was expected to be low. However, the New Jersey State Board of Commerce attacked the idea of building a low-level bridge, and instead advocated constructing a bridge with a 135-foot clearance to insure the viability of New Jersey ports. The two state legislatures acceded to this demand, and assigned construction of the bridge to a new bi-state agency: the Port of New York Authority. The bridge proposal was to be part of an integral port improvement.

When asked years later why the Port Authority began with the Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing, general counsel Julius Henry Cohen responded as follows:

We wanted to begin with something where we were most likely to succeed, and the smaller enterprise was the better one for the purpose. If we succeeded, the George Washington Bridge would surely come later. And so it did.

During the spring of 1924, the state legislatures of New York and New Jersey authorized construction of the Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing, and allocated $3 million for preliminary design and
engineering studies.

Despite contentions from shipping interests that the bridge would block water traffic on Arthur Kill, the War Department approved the plans during the spring of 1925. Soon thereafter, the Port Authority sold $14 million worth of bonds for the two bridges.

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION: The Port Authority tapped John Alexander Waddell, an American engineer with experience designing structures around the world, to design the Goethals Bridge and its twin to the south, the Outerbridge Crossing. The Goethals Bridge is a shorter version of the steel-truss cantilever Outerbridge Crossing, with a 672-foot-long suspended center span and two 240-foot-long side spans. The piers were sunk 50 feet below the bottom of the channel. Long viaducts, comprised of steel girders set atop arched concrete piers, carry the roadway to its mid-span height of 135 feet above Arthur Kill. From end to end, the bridge measures 8,600 feet in length.

The design of the Goethals Bridge was modified from the original 1923 design to handle vehicular traffic exclusively. In addition to carrying four vehicular lanes, the bridge was designed with a walkway for pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

The Goethals Bridge opened to traffic on June 29, 1928, the same day that the Outerbridge Crossing to the south opened. The new bridge was named after Major General George W. Goethals, designer of the Panama Canal and the first consulting engineer of the Port Authority. Goethals died tragically before the bridge was dedicated.

This 1999 photo shows the Goethals Bridge (I-278) looking south from the Arthur Kill Railroad Bridge. (Photo by Dave Frieder.)

This 2001 photo shows the Goethals Bridge (I-278 in the background, with the parallel Arthur Kill Railroad Bridge in the foreground. View is looking south. (Photo by Tom Scannello.)

IT TOOK THE VERRAZZANO TO MAKE THE GOETHALS PROFITABLE: When the initial studies were made in the 1920s, the Port Authority estimated that it would take ten years for the Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing to become self-sufficient. Although the Goethals Bridge handled 675,000 vehicles during 1929, the first full year of operation, usage dropped sharply because of the Great Depression and World War II. It was not until 1945 that the bridge handled more than one million vehicles. Still, the bridge did not become self-sufficient until the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opened in 1964.

From the 1952 to 1972, the Goethals Bridge carried Route 439 from New Jersey to New York. The I-278 designation was added to the bridge in 1958, when the Interstate was routed through Staten Island via the Goethals Bridge and the (then-proposed) Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

In 1959, the Arthur Kill movable lift railroad bridge was built parallel to the Goethals Bridge, replacing a swing span that stood earlier in that location. Today, this railroad span remains the longest movable lift bridge in the world.

NOTABLE ALTERNATIONS TO THE ORIGINAL SPAN: In 1954, the Port Authority added two lanes to the New Jersey approach span to the bridge to relieve congestion prompted by the opening of the New Jersey Turnpike (I-95) through the area two years earlier. Improvements in 1955 addressed safety through the addition of outer edge concrete curb walls and steel guardrails.

More ambitious improvements followed in the mid-1960s. On the New York side of the bridge, the Port Authority built an expanded toll plaza, a new administrative and maintenance building, and roadway improvements to connect to the new Staten Island Expressway (I-278), On the New Jersey side, the Port Authority built a new eastbound approach over the New Jersey Turnpike, and converted the existing approach into an expanded westbound approach. This improvement was designed not only for increased traffic related to the New Jersey Turnpike interchange, but also a future (but unbuilt) westerly extension of I-278 towards I-78 in Union.

In 1972, the Port Authority installed a new concrete median barrier along the length of the bridge, and added a new traffic (lane) control system.

GOETHALS RECONSTRUCTION: In 2001, the Port Authority began work to repaint the 750,000 square feet of structural steel on the truss structure of the Goethals Bridge. Workers removed old coats of lead-based paint, and applied a three-coat system that included a zinc primer, epoxy intermediate coat, and a urethane topcoat. The $19 million project was completed in 2003.

In 2003, the Port Authority began work on a $252 million project to replace the deck of the Goethals Bridge. This project, which involved replacing the lower layers of steel and concrete that support the road above, was completed in 2009.

PRELIMINARY PLANS TO TWIN THE GOETHALS: In January 1998, one month after it received final approval from the U.S. Coast Guard for its construction, the Port Authority announced plans for a $350 million span that would parallel the existing Goethals Bridge just to the south. The existing bridge, which had capacity for only four 10-foot-wide lanes of traffic, carried approximately 75,000 vehicles per day (AADT) as part of I-278. According to Ernesto L. Butcher, the authority's director of bridges and tunnels, the bridge is "structurally sound, but functionally obsolete." Under this plan, the new bridge would have accommodated three eastbound lanes while the rehabilitated bridge would have carried three westbound lanes. Both spans would have had provisions for HOV lanes, emergency shoulders, and multi-use paths for pedestrians and cyclists.

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a mass transit advocacy group, opposed the second Goethals Bridge. The group cited the Port Authority's own estimates that traffic would return to congested levels in 20 years. Guy Molinari, the Staten Island borough president, said that the span would bring only "a very minimal benefit" to Staten Islanders, which would be offset mostly by the increased traffic from cars and trucks using the island as a thoroughfare to and from points east. He said he would support the bridge only if the Port Authority agreed to finance mass transit projects for Staten Island, such as reviving the long-dormant North Shore rail line.

This 2009 design proposal for the new Goethals Bridge featured two single Y-shaped towers supporting both the eastbound and westbound roadways. This design was rejected in favor of a four-tower design. (Left photo by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; right photo by Reliance Engineers.)

THE NEW GOETHALS BRIDGE: A follow-up discussion from NYCRoads.com contributor Marc Rivlin in 2004 revealed that Port Authority moved away from twinning the existing Goethals Bridge and instead favored building a completely new span:

I was at an all-day conference on Staten Island transit and transportation at the College of Staten Island. While the Goethals Bridge twinning was mentioned a few times, Joann Papageorgis of the Port Authority only spoke of the Goethals Bridge Modernization Program and an environmental impact statement that is underway. Borough President James Molinaro said, at the end of the day, that twinning was off the table since 2003 and that there would instead be a replacement. That was the first time I heard this, and there are no environment impact statement (EIS) documents on the Port Authority web site.

In September 2004, the Port Authority initiated the EIS process with preliminary scoping meetings on Staten Island and in Elizabeth, New Jersey. On August 14, 2008, the agency released in its draft EIS report preliminary plans for a replacement Goethals span that would be built either north or south of the existing span.

The updated plan called for a cable-stay design in which the eastbound and westbound roadways would be suspended from the towers. It was to have capacity for six lanes of vehicular traffic (three in each direction), with one lane in each direction reserved exclusively for HOV or bus-only traffic and breakdown lanes to ease traffic flow.(The bridge eventually opened without the HOV-bus lane restrictions, but may be revisited in the future upon the extension of the Staten Island Expressway HOV lanes west to the Goethals Bridge.) Accommodations were to be made for multi-use pedestrian-bicycle paths and possibly a future mass transit line.

In July 2009, following a period of public comment, the Port Authority decided upon the "New Alignment South" alignment as its preferred alignment, an agreement arrived jointly with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers. The new bridge was to be of a twin-span, cable-stay design built to the following dimensions:

• EASTBOUND SPAN: 67.5 feet (20.6 meters) wide, accommodating three 12-foot (3.65-,meter) wide travel lanes, a 12-foot-wide right shoulder, and a five-foot-wide left shoulder.
  

This 2016 photo shows construction of the new twin-span Goethals Bridge (I-278), which was built south of the existing span. View is looking east from Elizabeth, NJ. (Photo by Dan Murphy.)

This 2016 photo shows construction of the new twin-span Goethals Bridge (I-278). View is looking west from Staten Island. (Photo by Dan Murphy.)

GROUNDBREAKING: In April 2013, the Port Authority awarded the $1.5 billion contract to NYNJ Link, a public-private partnership (or "P3") which was the first awarded for a major highway infrastructure project in the New York metropolitan area. Although the Port Authority was the operating entity for the project, the P3 was a financial arrangement between the private sector and a government agency to fund the project. NYNJ Link selected Kiewit-Weeks-Massman (KWM), a joint venture of three contracting firms, for the design-build phase of the project. Workers broke ground for the new Goethals Bridge on May 7, 2014.

THE CABLE-STAY DESIGN: Given the relatively short expanse of the Arthur Kill's main shipping channel, engineers determined that a cable-stay design provided the most cost-effective solution. A total of 144 steel cable stays - 72 on each span - were installed to connect to suspend the roadways to the bridge's four V-shaped towers. Each cable stay is 13 inches (33 centimeters) in diameter and measure up to 400 feet (122 meters) long. Threading the strands - each one consisting of a bundle of tightly-wound steel wires - through a cable's outer pipe took several days. The design allowed for the construction of roadways to meet at the center of the span.

Four concrete towers were built to connect the cables to the two roadways. Although the 272-foot (82.9-meter) towers of the new bridge were slightly taller than the 240-foot (73.2-meter) towers of the old span, engineers had to limit the height of the towers given that the site was less than two miles (three kilometers) from Newark-Liberty International Airport.

There are 35 spans for the eastbound approaches and 33 spans for the westbound approaches. A total of 397 girders, each up to 176 feet (53.6 meters) long, 3.5 feet (1.1 meters) wide, eight feet (2.4 meters) tall, and weighing 110 tons (111.8 metric tons) support the approach roadways.

Special attention was paid to environmental mediation and soil protection. Crews removed hazardous materials related to construction and demolition, including asbestos, from the site. A related project involved the restoration of 10.5 acres (4.2 hectares) of low marsh, 2.5 acres (1.0 hectare) of high marsh, and 7.9 acres (3.2 hectares) of scrub, as well as erosion and sediment control measures.

OPENING IN PHASES: The first of the twin spans - which now carries the eastbound lanes - was opened to traffic on June 10, 2017. When it opened, all traffic was diverted from the old Goethals Bridge to the new span; there was a temporary setup with four 11-foot (3.35-meter) travel lanes and no shoulders. Still, this was an improvement over the narrower lanes of the old span. Work on demolishing the old bridge began soon thereafter. Demolition work began on the old span soon after the opening of the first twin span.

The second of the twin spans - which now carries the westbound lanes - was opened to traffic on May 20, 2018. Several months later, the Port Authority opened the bridge's new ped-bike path along the westbound span. It one of only three such over-the-water ped-bike paths between New York and New Jersey (the others are on two other Port Authority crossings: the George Washington Bridge and the Bayonne Bridge).

According to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), about 75,000 vehicles per day cross the Goethals Bridge. This volume has changed little since the late 1990s.

This photos taken in the fall of 2017 show the first of the twin spans of the new Goethals Bridge (I-278) being pressed into service to carry two lanes in each direction (left photo). Demolition work is shown underway on the old span (right photo). (Photos by Steve Anderson.)

This 2020 photo shows the completed eastbound and westbound spans of the new Goethals Bridge (I-278) following completion of demolition work on the old span. (Photo by Dan Murphy.)

SOURCES: The Bridges of New York by Sharon Reier, Quadrant Press (1977); Engineers of Dreams by Henry Petroski, Vintage Books-Random House (1995); "A Guide to Civil Engineering Projects in and Around New York City," American Society of Civil Engineers (1997); Bridges by Judith Dupre, Black Dog And Leventhal Publishers (1997); Perpetual Motion: The Illustrated History of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by Joe Mysak and Judith Schiffer, General Publishing Group (1997); "Port Authority Is To Consider Bridge Parallel to the Goethals" by Andy Newman, The New York Times (1/27/1998); "At Outerbridge, NJ Has Its Crossing To Bear" by Al Frank, The Star-Ledger (3/28/2000); "$63 Million Goethals Bridge Rehabilitation Underway" by David S. Chartock, Construction Equipment Guide (8/09/2005); "A Cool New Goethals" by Jay DeDapper, WNBC-TV (8/14/2008); Goethals Bridge Reconstruction: Environmental Impact Statement, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (2008); "Cuomo Announces Official 'Start' of $1.5 Billion Goethals Replacement" by Judy L. Randall, The Staten Island Advance (5/07/2014); "Four-Year Goethals Bridge Replacement Project Begins," WCBS-TV (5/08/2014); "Behind the Scenes: A New Goethals Bridge Comes into Sight" by Vincent Barone, The Staten Island Advance (8/07/2015); "New Goethals Bridge: Installation of Stay Cables Begins," The Staten Island Advance (7/15/2016); "Exclusive: Inside the Construction of the New Goethals Bridge" by Susan Lunny Keag, The Staten Island Advance (12/06/2016); "It's Done! New Goethals Bridge Opens This Weekend - Here Are the Details" by Larry Higgs, The Staten Island Advance (6/08/2017); "New Goethals Bridge Set to Open to Traffic on Monday" by Paul Berger, The Wall Street Journal (5/17/2018); "You'll Soon Be Able to Walk and Bike Between Elizabeth and Staten Island" by Jared Kofsky, Jersey Digs (9/11/2018); EPM; Federal Highway Administration; JR Cruz; Kiewit Infrastructure; New Jersey Department of Transportation; Reliance Engineers; Phil Case; Hank Eisenstein; Dave Frieder; Ralph Herman; Scott Kozel; Raymond C. Martin; Dan Moraseski; Mark Rivlin; Tom Scannello.

• Goethals Bridge, I-278, and NY 439 shields by Ralph Herman.
  
• Lightpost photos by Steve Anderson.
  

GOETHALS BRIDGE LINKS:

• Goethals Bridge (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey)
  
• Goethals Bridge (Federal Highway Administration)
  
• Goethals Bridge (Historical American Engineering Record)
  
• Goethals Bridge (HNTB Corporation)
  
• Goethals Bridge (Steve Alpert)
  
• Goethals Bridge (Dave Frieder)
  
• Goethals Bridge (David Golub)
  
• Goethals Bridge Replacement EIS (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey)
  
• Goethals Bridge Traffic Counts (New York State Department of Transportation)
  
• I-278 (New York) (David Golub)
  

GOETHALS BRIDGE CURRENT TRAFFIC CONDITIONS:

• New York 511 (Conditions and Traffic Cameras)
  
• New Jersey 511 (Conditions and Traffic Cameras)
  

GOETHALS BRIDGE VIDEO LINKS:

• Goethals Bridge (Dan Murphy)
  
• Goethals Bridge (Mileage Mike Travels)
  
• Goethals Bridge Construction Time-Lapse (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey)
  

• Staten Island Expressway (I-278)
  
• West Shore Expressway (NY 440)
  
• Interstate 278 (New Jersey)
  
• New Jersey Turnpike (I-95)
  
• North Shore Expressway (NY 439, unbuilt)
  

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