The Donald and Morris Goodkind Bridges are a pair of bridges on

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. The bridges cross the

Raritan River Raritan River is a major river of New Jersey. Its Drainage basin, watershed drains much of the mountainous area of the central part of the state, emptying into the Raritan Bay on the Atlantic Ocean. History Geologists assert that the lower Rar ...

, connecting Edison on the north bank with

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

on the south. The northbound span, a concrete

arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side. A viaduct ...

, is named after its designer, New Jersey Highway Department engineer

Morris Goodkind Morris Goodkind (1888 – September 5, 1968) was chief bridge engineer for the New Jersey State Highway Department from 1925 to 1955 (now New Jersey Department of Transportation), and was responsible for the construction of numerous bridges during t ...

. This span was completed in 1929 and reflects the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

styling of the time. Along both sides of the bridge, there are historical plaques that read of the site's significance to both the

Lenape Indians The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...

and the American colonists. Originally named the College Bridge, it was renamed the Morris Goodkind Bridge on April 25, 1969. Morris had a son, Donald, who also became an architect and engineer for the

New Jersey Department of Transportation The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transportat ...

. Donald designed the southbound bridge, a steel span bridge built in 1974, which was named after him in 2004.

In popular culture

In the 1983 musical film ''

Eddie and the Cruisers ''Eddie and the Cruisers'' is a 1983 American musical drama film directed by Martin Davidson with the screenplay written by the director and Arlene Davidson, based on the novel by P. F. Kluge. The sequel '' Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! ...

'', fictional rock band leader Eddie Wilson was believed to have drowned when his 1957

Chevrolet Bel Air The Chevrolet Bel Air is a full-size car produced by Chevrolet for the 1950–1975 model years. Initially, only the two-door hardtops in the Chevrolet model range were designated with the Bel Air name from 1950 to 1952. With the 1953 model year, ...

went off the Morris Goodkind Bridge on March 15, 1964. In ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...

'' episode "

Nobody Knows Anything "Nobody Knows Anything" is the 11th episode of the HBO original series ''The Sopranos''. Written by Frank Renzulli and directed by Henry J. Bronchtein, it originally aired on March 21, 1999. Starring * James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano * Lorrain ...

," Detective

Vin Makazian This is a list of fictional characters from the HBO series ''The Sopranos'', its video game '' The Sopranos: Road to Respect'' and its prequel film ''The Many Saints of Newark.'' Main characters Cast table Main character biographies Tony Sopran ...

leaps to his death from the Donald Goodkind Bridge.

References

Bridges over the Raritan River Bridges completed in 1929 Bridges completed in 1974 Bridges in Middlesex County, New Jersey Art Deco architecture in New Jersey Road bridges in New Jersey U.S. Route 1 Bridges of the United States Numbered Highway System Edison, New Jersey New Brunswick, New Jersey Open-spandrel deck arch bridges in the United States Concrete bridges in the United States Steel bridges in the United States 1929 establishments in New Jersey {{NewJersey-bridge-struct-stub

In popular culture

See also

See also

References