Neighborhoods & People

Neighborhoods and People. Connecting Neighborhoods. , The construction of the Bayonne Bridge created an automotive connection between the City of Bayonne and Port Richmond, which for the first time made driving from Staten Island to Bayonne, as well as New York City, feasible., A Location Is Chosen , As part of a grand design to unify the ports, planners decided to link Staten Island and Bayonne by bridging the Kill Van Kull. A location was selected at its narrowest width, between Bergen Point in Bayonne and Port Richmond on Staten Island. To minimize disruption on established neighborhoods, the bridge was aligned with existing roads and mainly in industrial areas. This reduced the impact on the residential neighborhoods., Port Richmond , The alignment of the Bayonne Bridge was designed to connect it with the existing street alignments in Bayonne and Port Richmond, with the approaches passing down the center of blocks to minimize disruption. The result was a 58 degree skew between the bridge and the channel. On Staten Island, the viaduct passed along the west side of Newark Avenue, through a lightly developed section of the Elm Park neighborhood. The approaches ran through a cement block factory, an oil distribution plan, and a coal yard. Perhaps the bridge's greatest impact, however, was on the future: the bridge spurred residential development in the north and central part of Staten Island, contributing to a 20 percent increase in the population by 1950., Bayonne , In Bayonne, the approaches to the bridge were routed through 10 blocks between Hudson Boulevard (today's JFK Boulevard) and Avenue A. The approaches were planned for a partially undeveloped residential area in Bayonne, and as a result only 35 houses were required to be purchased for removal. The construction of the approaches essentially separated residential areas of Bayonne (to the east) from heavy industry (to the west).