The Goethals Bridge

The bridge that connects Elizabeth New Jersey to Staten Island, New York is a famous landmark that Mix knew in Mix Tapes and Empty Buildings, but alas is no more. 

The bridge spanned over the Arthur Kill channel to a section of Staten Island called Arthur Kill to routes 1 and 9 in New Jersey. 

Arthur Kill wasn’t named after a person. (Author note, I saw a band called Arthur Kill one time at Tradewinds in Sea Bright, New Jersey. They played this hard rock brand of music. I think they took the name to sound menacing and exciting instead of a bunch of guys from Staten Island. You can see the website ArthurKillRocks.com).

The name of the region is an anglicized version of the name, Ackter Kill. Kill meant river bed. 

The Goethals Bridge was a cable stayed bridge. That meant it had cable support from the bridge deck to towers stationed along the bridge. These cables are thousands of pounds in strength made from industrial steel. 

The Goethals Bridge was named after an actual person. Major General George Washington Goethals was born in Brooklyn in 1858. He rose through the ranks in Army Engineering to where he supervised the construction of the Panama Canal. Afterward, he was a Quartermaster General of the Army during World War One. 

Major General Goethals wouldn’t live to see the bridge bearing his name. Goethals died in January 1928. The bridge would open in Autumn 1928. 

The bridge that Mix knew in 1987 was demolished in 2017. 

This information came from Wikipedia, panmunjom.gov