Three and Half Miles of the Pulaski Skyway

The Pulaski Skyway was opened in 1932 to an amazed public. The bridge spanned 3.5 miles from Newark to Jersey City. It spanned two rivers. This was the longest anyone had seen in the East Coast. 

The Skyway is a cantilever bridge. It had towers that rose above the skyline that anchored the bridge. When it opened, it had no name so they called it the “diagonal highway.” 

While the Skyway is an amazing piece of building and architecture, it was plagued by issues from the beginning. The first was that it had no name. The name didn’t come until 1933 and that was a battle of political legacies between the Jersey City mayor and neighboring areas. Trucks were banned in 1934. Since then, there have been labor fights, zoning around the bridge, and safety issues.

In spite of this, the nation learned of the Skyway from the radio broadcast, “War of the Worlds.” Martians landed on the bridge. Americans that thought the alien invasion was real heard a bridge so long that aliens could land on it. 

In 2009, the Skyway was determined to be structurally obsolete. It took years of haggling over what to do, years! A rehabilitation project began in 2012. For the next few years, there were lane closings and backups, but the bridge was reopened in June, 30, 2018. 

Mix could see part of the bridge from his town. That's how long the bridge was, Mix saw parts of it.