Bayonne Bridge

About

The Bayonne Bridge is a steel through arch bridge that spans the Kill Van Kull between Staten Island, New York, and Bayonne, New Jersey, United States. It carries New York State Route 440 and New Jersey Route 440, with the two roads connecting at the state border at the river’s center. It has the eighth-longest steel arch mainspan in the world, the longest in the world at the time of its completion. The bridge is also one of four connecting New Jersey with Staten Island; the other two roadway bridges are the Goethals Bridge in Elizabeth and Outerbridge Crossing (which also carries Route 440) in Perth Amboy, and the rail-only span is the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge, all of which cross the Arthur Kill.

The original four-lane roadway was designed for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by Swiss master bridge-builder Othmar Ammann and architect Cass Gilbert. Completed in 1931, it included a walkway, and offered 151 feet (46 m) of vertical clearance above the water.