The Pulaski Skyway's Forbidden Mystery
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- Опубліковано 22 тра 2024
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The Pulaski Skyway, an iconic elevated highway in New Jersey, was opened in 1932 as a critical component of the route linking Jersey City and Newark. Named after Revolutionary War hero General Casimir Pulaski, this 3.5-mile-long structure was designed to alleviate traffic congestion and facilitate industrial growth in the burgeoning port cities. Constructed during the Great Depression, the Skyway featured innovative engineering with its cantilever truss design and was celebrated as a marvel of modern infrastructure. Over the decades, it became both a vital transportation artery and a notorious traffic bottleneck, leading to extensive rehabilitation efforts in the 21st century to address its aging infrastructure while preserving its historic significance.
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Sponsor - TripleTen
Scriptwriter - Ryan Socash,
Editor - Karolina Szwata,
Host - Ryan Socash
Music/Sound Design: Dave Daddario
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Some images may be used for illustrative purposes only - always reflecting the accurate time frame and content. Events of factual error / mispronounced word/spelling mistakes - retractions will be published in this section.
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As a lifetime resident of New Jersey you have not really experienced life until you’ve driven over the skyway in a winter storm or pouring rain! my favorite part are the entrances and exit in the middle of the bridge so you have people pulling out in front of you at 20 miles an hour when you’re doing 65 in the fast lane! it’s not the faint of heart,a lot people get killed on that road every year. We just don’t tell you about it.😊
You are not kidding! I still can recall, vividly, driving back to Hoboken over the Skyway during a spring Nor'easter; high winds and sideways rain. Good times!
@@Jesse615 Glad you are still here to comment about it! Please be careful on that road! It’s no joke! I guess it was safe and designed to drive the model T over at 20 mph!
The best part of driving the Skyway for me is the southbound section of the 1&9 just north Newark Airport where the bridge sections aren't exactly level and it feels like a bit like a galloping roller coaster if you drive it at a good clip.
The engineer who designed that section, Sigvald Johannesson, had extensive experience in railroad structures. The idea of a limited access vehicular highway was so new, he based it on railroad principles. As signals control all such meeting points, there's no collision potential. The inherent hazard of merging into fast moving traffic wasn't recognized till after The Skyway opened.
I was up there several times as a paramedic. One foggy night the ground was shrouded by the fog. You couldn't see anything below other than an eerie glow from the streetlights. I remember wondering if that's what Heaven is like.
I'm two blocks from Othmar Ammann's home on Staten Island. In addition to the Pulaski, he also build all for bridges connection Staten Island auto traffic to the world, the Outerbridge Crossing, Goethals Bridge, Bayonne Bridge and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. He also built the GW Bridge in addition to the Whitestone, Throgs Neck, and Walt Whitman bridges.
He's literally the signature suspension bridge builder for NYC and environs. With the exception of the Brooklyn bridge, literally every other major crossing was one of his projects and designs. Iconic.
You also forgot the Delaware Memorial Bridge between Delaware and New Jersey.
He was good but not perfect. He didn't fully appreciate the importance of a stiffened deck and relied too much on plate sides for the bridge deck. Several of his bridges needed to be strengthen after the Tacoma Narrows Bridge failed. They quickly added the lower deck to the GW bridge to stiffen it.
@greentriumph1643 Not accurate. The only Ammann designed bridge needing reinforcement was the Bronx-Whitestone. It was not in danger of collapse like the Tacoma Narrows, but wind oscillations were sufficiently troubling that cable stays then a stiffening truss were added. A lighter road deck has since allowed that truss' removal. The George Washington Bridge never had such issues. The lower deck was planned from the outset, originally to carry a rail connection. Increased auto traffic lead to its addition in 1962, with diagonal stiffening trusses.
@@dk50b "In addition to providing extra capacity, the lower level served to stiffen the bridge in high winds; before the lower deck was constructed, the George Washington Bridge was known to swing up to 30 inches" You can also read, "To Engineer is Human, Henry Petroski.
I have driven over this skyway many times in my 30 year career as a UNION Pipefitter. God Bless Jersey City ❤
Which local were you?
God Bless You brother. From a retired 420 Philly Steamfitter.
I was born in Kearny New Jersey within sight of the Skyway. If you look at pictures of the Skyway, the point where the bridges rest on the concrete pylons are extremely small. The loading per square foot must be enormous.
You're right I was looking at those two it's like looking at 3D pivoted triangles on each of the four corners holding the main span.. if one of them slips or an earthquake tremor could easily cordless domino effect. Just like the key Bay bridge . Real marvel to look at. But.... How many cars a day pass over the Pulaski skyway
@@georgeplagianos6487 Good thing no giant container ships pass under the Skyway, then. They're all relegated to the bay.
As a north Jersey resident I'd always hear jokes of Hoffa's body being buried under Giant Stadium. After the old stadium was demolished and replaced with Metlife, I never heard of it again until now.
Same, apparently it’s somewhere on the grounds of waste management
They did look for any signs of Hoffa after they tore down Giants Stadium, but did not see anything. There is however a Potter's Field located in the vicinity of Seacaucus Junction (NJTP Eastern Spur Exit-15X) that still has bodies buried there.
An investigator who has tracked the Hoffa disappearance from it’s start is convinced he was cremated right after his murder
I joke and say that one day we're gonna find Jimmy Hoffa hiding at the bottom of my purse.
I always hated this bridge. My first time driving on it after many years im in the right lane trying not to be that guy who exits and cuts traffic last second. After about an hour and some change it turns out the right lane ended as an exit only lane and the left lane continued straight which is where i needed to go, massive facepalm moment to myself
Better to take transit and subways!😀
@@leechjim8023 i really should have remembered that, i live 30 minutes from the city no traffic but live a block away from my local trainstation. Apart from the traffic headache, parking lots in the city are expensive. Id rather just walk the entire time now lol
@@leechjim8023 yeah if you're talking about driving into NYC. I think I'd rather get a prostate exam than drive in midtown NYC
Pretty sure you snuck a pic of the Oakland Bay Bridge in there, a much prettier but also far less sinister bridge that deserves its own episode.
I saw that too!
That was the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in it's early stages. They showed it when they showed the Swiss fella that designed the Skyway, Verrazano, GW, Throgs Neck, Bayonne, and several other area bridges
@@dougcasciegna75446:09
@@dougcasciegna7544 At 6:15? That is most certainly the Oakland Bay Bridge.
@@dougcasciegna7544 Bay bridge Oakland to SF
I grew up Montclair, NJ, visible on your map at 3:25. I remember riding over the Pulaski Skyway with my Dad, going into NYC usually through the Holland tunnel. I remember he thought the Skyway kind of a special privilege to drive over. This was late 50's - early 60's. Wasn't any big deal to drive through the Holland or Lincoln Tunnels, but the Skyway, that was special.
I wasn't aware of the skyway history. I used to cross it back and forth to work in the late '60s. Good job.
Gerd jerbs
My grandmother lived in Jersey City 4 houses from the Tonnellee Circle. This was the east end of the Skyway. The Skyway crossed 2 rivers the Hackensack and the Passaic. Later on I drove across it many times going to Philadelphia and I see it as a time warp,it looks exactly as it did in 1930.
Even to this day, trucks are not permitted on the Skyway. It is still, even after renovations done in 2015-2019 kinda scary to drive on.
I love that bridge. Nothing scary about it at all, unless you fear Heights. When I was a child and my parents drove over that bridge it was like I was flying in an airplane. The side railings /walls of the bridge have openings which at high speeds become translucent.. and you can see the world below.
@@luisarroyo1368Agreed one of the most exhilarating trips you can take. Industrial sprawl isn't everyone's idea of scenery, but soaring above on the first elevated superhighway still gives me goosebumps.
As a trucker, it’s just about the only place in Jersey that I haven’t been, save for the tunnels and such.
Can you do a video on another bridge named after a polish general? The Kosciuszko bridge.
No mention of truck 1& 9, which is an easy bypass of the Skyway.
I don't think this was a route planning video lol. I mean they could list off dozens of ways to avoid the PS
Takes forever. I went to NJCU and don't let a ship come. Late again 😂
Even that's irrelevant as I-278 has a connection between US 1-9 and the NJTP, of which then the Newark Bay Extension (I-78) reconnects with NJ 139.
@@rwboa22 I don't think the Newark Bay Extension was built until the 1950's and that is an expensive toll route for trucks. The video implied alternatives were very long in 1933.
That road is a death trap. Driven on this road countless lf times. Theres no shoulders for disabled cars. Get into an accident there, traffic is almost at a standstill for miles.
We always had really good luck on the Skyway. It's a road not many want to use. We used it to avoid the Turnpike going to the tunnel. But I can see the whole hazard aspect of the road. Why people would choose not to take the Skyway. It is a bit spooky. I remember there was road construction for years at one end of the Skyway. The crew was just making a career out of the job. Then one day they got to working and finally finished it. We couldn't believe when they left.
Great video. Worked at Kearny Point for 5 years starting in the early 1990s. Loved working up there. Used to go to the Skyway Diner (now closed) at least once a week under the Skyway which was so prominently featured in The Soprano’s episode when Christopher was shot. Good memories! Shout out to Eddie! Youullll!
In this video, there are 2 quick shots of the old PSE&G gas plant that was where I worked for my first real job. When you took the Belleville Tpk from N. Arlington, through the swamp you went across the Whittpen bridge, and the primary gas holder was right there on the left. The large tank with the metal framework around it is #2 holder.
It would be awesome if you could do something about the gas plants that were in NJ that belonged to PSEG. There was West End in Jersey City, Paterson, and Harrison. The Harrison plant had the huge tank that had "Go Navy" painted on the side that was visited from the NJ Tpk.
The plants were there to augment the natural gas supply. Brooklyn Union Gas Co. had plants in NYC.
When it got very cold in the winter, these plants would come online producing "oil gas", made from a process using #2 oil. If you lived near one of these plants, you always knew when they were online because the stove burners flames were more yellow than blue.
Yeah.....I'm old. 😊
But do you remember the tanks alongside the Turnpike extension to the Holland Tunnel that said OIL HEATS BEST (one word on each tank)?
@@FromSagansStardust
I don't really remember those since we never used the extension. But I do remember the big waterless holder in Harrison that had "Go Navy" on the side thar could be seen from the Turnpike. That was the Harrison gas plant. 😊
Passed by there a few days ago. I scanned for what I could find, then spotted that tiny PS Triangle logo within some concrete arch work! Now I can maybe decipher places you mentioned! Thx, A ##JerseyBoy from birth!!
Wow….i remember that tank that said Go Navy from my younger days.
You do a lot of episodes concerning New York and New Jersey, are you from the area or do you find it particularly interesting for some other reason?
Not a complaint; I live in NJ and I'm always interested in learning about local history.
Professor again another great history lesson from the past, have a great day be at peace and be safe...
I worked under and around, as well as used the Pulaski highway, during my employment with N.J. Bell Tel in the 70's. Great memories, thanks for the history of this great structure
Another cool and super informative video Ryan 👍🏽😎👍🏽
Thanks 👍
I’ve driven on this road hundreds of times back in the 1980s and 90s. It always had a vibe about it that gave me a sense of part thrill and part dread. It’s unlike any other roadway I’ve ever driven on. Just the thought of exits to the left is so unusual. And the steep ramps! Kind of scary, for sure! It does have sort of an eerie beauty about it. It’s as if the structure is beckoning you. Challenging and daring you to cross it.
Wow, you really nailed it!
6:11 San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge. Also notice the piers on the Embarcadero in the lower right of the frame.
Clearly not the Skyway
Why is there a grainy picture of the San Francisco bay bridge in the film?
What isn't mentioned is that Mr Hoffa disappeared near Detroit. It really doesn't make a lot of sense for the an organized crime enterprise to transport either a body or a prisoner 600 miles to dispose of or kill and dispose of him in New Jersey. Especially considering that there are two great lakes within 50 miles of Detroit (lakes Huron and Erie, not counting Lake Saint Claire right off of Detroit) My bet is that his remains are at the bottom of one of those lakes.
Just going for the clicks…
Jimmy Hoffa is with Elvis.
Remember my dad driving us over it frequently during late 60’s - early 70’s when taking day trips to NYC from our house in Union Township 😻👍
Your background music takes me somewhere✅️
Never been on the skyway, but now I am thinking about a trip just to see it! Thanks.
Yeah it's quite the WPA project. Amazing it's still standing today. Almost 100 years old now.
Very familiar with it! Born in Elizabeth I went to Tech school in NYC .
Great video's 👍🏻
Just about every MAJOR urban bridge has as dark a history. Here in Edmonton? It's the High Level Bridge which until barriers were installed used to have at last 12-24 people leap from it annually... And even today there's usually at least one distress call per week on it even with help phones, cameras, netting, etc. Of course the same is true with THE BRIDGE aka The Golden Gate Bridge and its now infamous documentary about people who have attempted self harm on it...
Thank You for your great video and your marvelous storytelling. Please allow me one annotation: The structure in the picture from 6:00 to 6:21 m:ss seems to be the San Francisco - Oakland Bay bridge, not the Pulasky Skyway.
Probably the most outstanding sight in the foreground when you drive into NYC from EWR \m/
13:35 is a white 1972 Mercury not a maroon 1975 Mercury.
I caught that too.
Check the JACQUES-CARTIER bridge in Montréal QC they have also the "suicide curve " issue around 20 years ago
Always on the money !!!
If you’re gonna do a show on the Pulaski Skyway then do not use footage of the Baybridge in San Francisco
I just noticed this.
Everyone's a critic
At the very least it would be nice if the photos were captioned to let us know if it's the item in the topic or not.
@@billtheunjust it’s not just this creator that is guilty of poor research. There are many content creators on this platform that use stock footage of anything they can find most of the time something that has nothing to do with the topic they’re discussing and use that footage in their video which makes no sense to me
I uh .. I'm not sure what you saw but the only bridge that I saw that wasn't the Pulaski was the beginning stages of the Verrazano. And that was only when they showed the fella that designed the Verrazano, GW, Pulaski, and Throgs Neck bridges to name a few.
Some corrections and clarifications. There have been bridges over the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers since Colonial times, including several capable of handling vehicular traffic. The Pulaski Skyway didn't replace any ferries, instead providing a high capacity direct route to the Hudson River waterfront and Holland Tunnel. The Skyway is a combination of cantilevered deck trusses and two 550 foot through Pratt trusses spanning the rivers. There are no suspension sections. Those spans were designed by NJ Highway Commission engineer Sigvald Johannesson. As his experience was in railroad structures, where all movements are controlled by signals, the hazards of left merges and no center barrier weren't evident. Othmar Ammann, then Chief Engineer of The Port of New York Authority, played no role in The Skyway's design. Lastly, the time wasted on Jimmy Hoffa would've been better spent discussing the 14 men who died building The Skyway, and William T Harrison, beaten to death by members of the Iron Worker's Union in violence that plagued the entire project due to use of nonunion labor.
Rising music of triumph, the completion of the Pulaski Skyway!!!
We you an image of the San Francisco Bay bridge????
6:20
I worked next to this bridge at the Kearny Heliport
I was born at 5:33 AM the same day Jimmy Hoffa disappeared, July 30, 1975. As that was one of the biggest news stories that day. I have always been fascinated by his mysterious disappearance/
As a resident of Warsaw and New York, I always watch the history of these cities and surrounding regions with great interest. Cheers from Warsaw...
1:41 “Which one is my Car?” 😉🤣
I wonder if there is a map of every place people have dug looking for Jimmy Hoffa
No way they killed Hoffa in Detroit and transported him to NJ. He’s in a drum at the bottom of Lake Michigan.
6:09 that's the San Francisco Bay Bridge.
How do you manage to keep on making interesting content?
6:20
San Francisco Bay bridge
13:32
*Vehicle shown is a 1972 Grand Marquis :)
The problem with the Skyway is that it is simply too narrow. Even without trucks it was always a bit daunting to drive the thing!
I used to take the Pulaski Skyway to Rutgers Newark eveyday. Then 10 years later I took again. I was totally afraid to drive on this bridge.
Rutgers Newark class of 1980 here, but I commuted from Lyndhurst!
Bridge was opened on my birthday November 24th
What is "forbidden mystery" supposed to mean?
Clickbait
I hated this bridge when I was using it to commute to work.
that close to the ocean more likely hoffa was chained to an engine block and kicked overboard a good piece out!!! it'd be at least 500 times harder to find a body done like that as to a land disposal that didn't involve burning or acid!!
How well has the Skyway been kept up? Was there concern about its condition, after the Minneapolis bridge collapse? That is, like so many other bridges, at the time.
There is a highway that runs through Delaware and Maryland know as Pulaski Highway. Better known as Rt-40.
Back in the mid 60’s, I walked the entire skyway.
Is the skyways diner still there?
I believe they actually had one of the killers of Hoffa explain how they got rid of him there in DETROIT and how they cleaned up the scene of the murder.
14:55 for "mystery" which isn't.
A New Jersey icon. Why the San Francisco Bay Bridge photo?
Creepy road
Not to be picky. But I'm going to be... The Hoffa Lincoln you showed. Is from the mid-eighties!! 😉🤣
Multiple bodies have been found underneath that bridge recently
Hoffa gravesite is the Meadowlands. Some say Giants Stadium, some say off of route 3. That’s the tale. 🤷🏾♂️
Hoffa was killed and disposed of in Detroit, how stupid would it have been to transport the body halfway across the country….
I heard it was under the Hyatt in Chicago
I've always heard that he was buried under Giants Stadium
I heard they dumped the body in an acid tank. Which is why it'll never be found. But I've heard the Giants stadium thing a lot too. I never believed that one.
It’s Kearny (car-nee)
Used Pulaski's hoe axe fighting forest fires. Never knew he made bridges too.
We call that the Jimmy Hoffa Bridge
Hoffa is buried in a lime pit in NJ, they'll never find him.
Logistically it doesn’t make sense. Hoffa disappeared in Michigan it would be way too much exposure to move the body to Jersey. There were plenty of construction sites in Detroit and plenty of sausage factories as well.
💛💛💛
I thought that all things Pulaski were in Chicago
My grandfather called it “the steel highway of death.”
I take this bridge to work everyday to get to Kearney point.
Hoffa got thrown into an animal feed processing plant
Ugly bridge,to say the least with a less than charming reputation. Chris Christie forced the Port Authority to pay for the renovations, arguing the bridge, which is miles from the holland tunnel, was an approach road.
Why they would risk bringing hoffa to nj to dispose of is idiotic. They would have killed him in detroit, then put the body in a car,crush it and then melt it down.
Actually, it's a beautiful bridge, considered a beautiful steel structure. Look closely at the bridge, not the area.
@@joeshmoe7789
Even if it was over let's say the Mississippi river I don't think it would be considered beautiful.
@@njlauren Did you even look at it close up? Can you name any steel bridges built in the 1930's that are nicer?
True about the PANYNJ being bullied by Gov. Christie (who also used his appointments at the PANYNJ with the infamous "Bridgegate' scandal to get over $1 Billion for needed renovations for the structure instead of getting it from taxpayers. In large part, is was a diversion of PA funds to be used with the replacement of the train tunnel to Penn Station of NY, a project cancelled by Gov. Christie as didn't want the state stuck with billions in share costs to the state's taxpayers. The rational used by the PA was that it was a 'major connector' to the PA's Holland Tunnel. I worked in the PA's law department at the time as a litigation support specialist and brought the documents for the deal after approval of the PA's Board to the office of the Attorney General of NJ in Trenton for them to sign off on it, then the next day delivering documents, possible a check for the transfer (I didn't look inside the sealed envelope) and pick up signed documents.
Ryan, your UA-cam channel is more interesting and better than anything on television.
Keep up the good work!
A political Quagmire giggidy
If you want you can do a story on the long island new york west babylon Bergen Point wastewater treatment plant and its history of corruption during its conception and building initially in the 70s and 80s
Reads like business as usual in Long Island, New York.
“Skywalkers” before Star Wars 😂
A definite maybe ..........
"Monumentous"?!
Google Play is a company?
here
It makes you wonder about Jimmy haffa
Jimmy did more for the working man than anyone else ever did .😔
Rick astely never gonna give you up
Pula Sky Sky Way.
The Polish Road to Heaven
You should do a video on the Chicago Skyway I-90 it cost is about $7 and about $15 for Semi-truck
Named after Dr Pulaski who served as Chief Medical Officer on the USS Enterprise D
I rhought it was supposed to be eight lanes???
Right, you can make the jump into Google-level salaries in 5 months.
Geezus.
Hoffa was rendered
💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
Hoffa sleeps wish the fishes.🐟
Hoffa is under the meadowlands stadium everyone knows this. Lol
Do not drive on it. The concrete pillars are crumbling.