Outerbridge Crossing | |
|---|---|
 Outerbridge Crossing looking northwest towards New Jersey | |
| Coordinates | 40°31′30″N74°14′49″W / 40.525°N 74.247°W /40.525; -74.247 |
| Carries | 4 lanes of  NY 440 (NY side) /Route 440 |
| Crosses | Arthur Kill |
| Locale | Perth Amboy, New Jersey, andStaten Island,New York, U.S. |
| Maintained by | Port Authority of New York and New Jersey |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Steelcantilever bridge |
| Total length | 8,800 feet (2,682 m)[1] |
| Width | 62 feet (18.9 m) |
| Longest span | 750 feet (229 m) |
| Clearance above | 14 feet (4.3 m) |
| Clearance below | 143 feet (43.6 m)[2] |
| History | |
| Opened | June 29, 1928; 97 years ago (June 29, 1928) |
| Statistics | |
| Daily traffic | 77,107 (2016)[3] |
| Toll | For cars, eastbound only, as of July 6, 2025:[update]
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| Location | |
 Interactive map of Outerbridge Crossing | |
TheOuterbridge Crossing, also known as theOuterbridge, is acantilever bridge that spans theArthur Kill betweenPerth Amboy,New Jersey, andStaten Island,New York, United States. It carriesNew York State Route 440 andNew Jersey Route 440, with the two roads connecting at the state border at the river's center. The Outerbridge Crossing is one of three vehicular bridges connecting New Jersey with Staten Island, and like the others, is maintained and operated by thePort Authority of New York and New Jersey. The others are theBayonne Bridge (also carrying Route 440), which connects Staten Island withBayonne, and theGoethals Bridge (carryingInterstate 278), which connects the island withElizabeth.
Constructed from 1925 to 1928, the bridge was named forEugenius Harvey Outerbridge, the first chairman of the then–Port of New York Authority and a resident of Staten Island.[1][4][5] Rather than calling it the "Outerbridge Bridge", the span was labeled a "crossing". The bridge's etymology is sometimes incorrectly attributed to the fact that the Outerbridge Crossing is the most remote bridge in New York City and the southernmost crossing in New York state.[5][6]
The bridge is of a steelcantilever construction, designed byJohn Alexander Low Waddell and built under the auspices of the Port of New York Authority, now thePort Authority of New York and New Jersey, which currently operates it.[5] It opened simultaneously with the firstGoethals Bridge on June 29, 1928.[7] Both spans had similar designs prior to replacement of the Goethals with the current cable-stayed bridge in 2018. Neither bridge saw high traffic counts until the opening of theVerrazzano-Narrows Bridge in 1964. Traffic counts on both bridges were also depressed due to the effects of theGreat Depression andWorld War II.
The Outerbridge Crossing has undergone numerous repairs as a result of the high volume of traffic that crosses the bridge each day. On October 11, 2013, the Port Authority announced the completion of the bridge's repaving project.[8]
On March 2, 2017, Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye announced the funding of a study into a potential replacement bridge.[9] TheNational Transportation Safety Board recommended in early 2025 that the bridge undergo a structural vulnerability assessment, following theFrancis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Maryland the previous year.[10][11] Also in 2025, the Port Authority announced that a study into widening the bridge had been completed at a cost of $8.3 million and would be released later that year.[12]
The Outerbridge Crossing carried 32,438,000 vehicles (both directions) in 2006, or approximately 90,000 each day.
As of January 5, 2025[update], the tolls-by-mail rate going fromNew Jersey toNew York City is $18.31 for cars and motorcycles; there is no toll for passenger vehicles going from New York City to New Jersey. New Jersey and New York–issuedE-ZPass users are charged $14.06 for cars and $13.06 for motorcycles during off-peak hours, and $16.06 for cars and $15.06 for motorcycles during peak hours. Users with E-ZPass issued from agencies outside of New Jersey and New York are charged the tolls-by-mail rate.[13] Frequent users traveling more than three trips per month can receive discounts under the "Staten Island Bridges Plan" ($8.03 per trip for cars at all times).[13] From July 2025, the Mid-Tier rate is $18.72, while the toll-by-mail rate is $22.38.[14][15]
Tolls are only collected for eastbound traffic. Originally, tolls were collected in both directions. In August 1970, the toll was abolished for westbound drivers, and at the same time, eastbound drivers saw their tolls doubled. The tolls of eleven other New York–New Jersey and Hudson River crossings along a 130-mile (210 km) stretch, from the Outerbridge Crossing in the south to theRip Van Winkle Bridge in the north, were also changed to south- or eastbound-only at that time.[16]
In 2003, the Port Authority raised the speed limit for the three innerE-ZPass lanes at the toll plaza from 15 to 25 miles per hour (25 to 40 km/h), separating these lanes from the rest of the eight-lane toll plaza by a barrier.[17] Two years later, the tollbooths adjacent to the 25-mph E-ZPass lanes were removed and overhead gantries were installed with electronic tag readers to permit E-ZPass vehicles to travel at 45 miles per hour (70 km/h) in special high-speed lanes.[18] Motorists using the high-speed E-ZPass lanes cannot use exit 1 to Page Avenue, which is located immediately after the toll plaza.
Open road tolling began on April 24, 2019. The tollbooths were dismantled, and drivers are no longer able to pay cash at the bridge. Instead, there are cameras mounted onto new overhead gantries located on the Staten Island side. A vehicle without E-ZPass has a picture taken of its license plate and a bill for the toll is mailed to its owner. For E-ZPass users, sensors detect their transponders wirelessly.[19][20]
Bridges of theArthur Kill | ||||
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