newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ERIC MODEL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

JOURNEYS INTO NEW JERSEY

Their spans and roadways are familiar fixtures of our daily lives.

We tend to take these roadways for granted — that is until our trip is delayed.

So too we are apt to take for granted the names of the bridges and tunnels that help us go from here to there.

Some months back we enjoyed sharing with you the names and stories of New Jersey Turnpike Rest Stops (http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/style/a-new-jersey-turnpike-road-companion-all-about-those-folks-we-honor-through-rest-stops). We wanted to continue this journey of discovery of names with you — this time about the names of some prominent bridges and tunnels around the state:

The Holland Tunnel connects Manhattan, N.Y. with Jersey City, N.J.. Unusual for an American public works project, it is not named for a government official, politician, local hero or person of historical interest, but for its first chief engineer. The tunnel was originally known as the Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel or the Canal Street Tunnel.

The Goethals Bridge connects Elizabeth, N.J. and Staten Island, N.Y.. This span is named for Major General George Washington Goethals, who supervised construction of the Panama Canal and was the first consulting engineer of the Port Authority.

The Wittpenn Bridge, a vertical lift bridge, carries NJ-7 over the Hackensack River connecting Kearny and Jersey City, N.J., is named after H. Otto Wittpenn, a former mayor of Jersey City.

The Driscoll Bridge, the toll bridge on the Garden State Parkway connecting Woodbridge and Sayerville, N.J. is considered by many as the unofficial gateway to the Shore. Originally opened in 1954, it was renamed in 1974 for former Governor Alfred E. Driscoll, who advocated for and oversaw the construction of the Parkway, as well as for the Turnpike. With a total of 15 lanes, it is the widest bridge in the world.

The Walt Whitman Bridge, the suspension bridge spanning the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pa. to Gloucester City, N.J., is named after the poet Walt Whitman, who resided in nearby Camden toward the end of his life.

The Benjamin Franklin Bridge (also known as the Ben Franklin Bridge), was originally named the Delaware River Bridge. The suspension bridge across the Delaware River connecting Camden and Philadelphia is named for American statesman Benjamin Franklin.

The William A. Stickel Memorial Bridge is a vertical lift bridge that crosses the Passaic River, connecting Newark and Harrison, N.J. as part of I-280. Named for a former Essex County engineer, the bridge is one of the few movable bridges that remain in the Interstate Highway System. It rarely opens and is considered obsolete.

The John A. Lynch, Sr. Memorial Bridge is a bridge on Route 18 spanning the Raritan River connecting Piscataway with New Brunswick. The bridge was originally known as the Raritan River Bridge, but was renamed in honor of John A. Lynch, Sr., the former State Senator from the district that included New Brunswick and Piscataway, a former mayor of New Brunswick, and the father and namesake of John A. Lynch, Jr., who held those positions at the time of the bridge's completion.

The Donald and Morris Goodkind Bridges are a pair of bridges on U.S. 1 spanning the Raritan, connecting New Brunswick and Edison. The Donald Goodkind Bridge, a steel span bridge, carries southbound traffic. It is named after architect and engineer Donald Goodkind, built in 1974. The northbound span, a concrete arch bridge, is named after Donald's father, Morris Goodkind and was completed in 1929, reflecting the Art Deco styling of the time, and was officially renamed from College Bridge to The Morris Goodkind Bridge as of April 25, 1969. Both father and son were engineers for the New Jersey Department of Transportation, with each responsible for designing the bridge that now bears his name.

The General Pulaski Skyway, the landmark of cantilever truss, carries four lanes of U.S. 1/9 for 3.5 miles (5.6 km) between the far east side of Newark and Tonnele Circle in Jersey City, passing over Kearny, N.J.. It is known as a "skyway" because it travels high above the Meadowlands to avoid drawbridges across the Passaic and Hackensack. The skyway is named for General Kazimierz Pulaski, the Polish military leader who assisted in training and commanding Continental Army troops in the Revolutionary War.

Finally, there is the story of the Wallberg-Lovely Memorial Bridge, the Raritan River bridge of the New Jersey Turnpike. In 1954, shortly after the opening of the Turnpike, the Raritan River Bridge near Exit 9 was dedicated to the late private Luke A. Lovely of South Amboy, N.J.. Private Lovely was described as the first New Jersey soldier to lose his life in World War I (November 30, 1917 in France). Many years later ("recently" as described in a history of the New Jersey Turnpike), Turnpike officials received a letter from a patron with information that Private Martin Wallberg of Westfield, N.J. was killed in action on November 10, 1917 while fighting with the 8th Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Forces in France. Based on this information, the Turnpike Authority rededicated the bridge to now honor the first two New Jersey soldiers to die in World War I.

Eric Model explores the "offbeat, off the beaten path overlooked and forgotten" on SIRIUS-XM Radio and at journeysinto.com.