Arthur Kill

The name Arthur Kill is an anglicization of the Dutch achter kill meaning back channel, which would refer to its location "behind" Staten Island and has its roots in the early 17th century during the Dutch colonial era when the region was part of New Netherland.{{Cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/118047403/Bayonne-South-Hudson|title = Bayonne & South Hudson | PDF | Jersey City | New Jersey}} Placenaming by early explorers and settlers during the era often referred to a location in reference to other places, its shape, its topography, and other geographic qualities.{{cite news |last=Wardell |first=Patricia A. |title=A Dictionary of Bergen County Place Names in Bergen County, New Jersey and Vicinity |publisher=dutchdoorgenealogy.com |url=http://www.dutchdoorgenealogy.com/bergen_county_new_jersey_dictionary_place_names.pdf}} Kill comes from the Middle Dutch word kille, meaning riverbed, water channel, or stream. The area around the Newark Bay was called Achter Kol.{{cite book |url=https://millburnlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/HistoryMillburnTownshipEbook.pdf|title=A History of Millburn Township|chapter=III: THE COUNTRY BEFORE SETTLEMENT|author=Marian Meisner|date=July 5, 2002}} During the British colonial era the bay was known as Cull bay.{{Cite journal |last=Grabas |first=Joseph A. |title=Land Speculation and Proprietary Beginnings of New Jersey |journal=The Advocate |volume=XVI |issue=4 |pages=3, 20, 14 |publisher=New Jersey Land Title Association |url=http://www.njlta.org/Dec2004.pdf |access-date=April 15, 2010}} The bay lies behind Bergen Hill, the emerging ridge of the Hudson Palisades which begins on Bergen Neck, the peninsula between it and the Upper New York Bay. The sister channel of Arthur Kill, Kill van Kull, refers to the waterway that flows from the col or ridge or passage to the interior and translates as channel from the pass or ridge.

File:Wpdms nygis arthurkill.jpg on the south with Newark Bay on the north]]

The channel is approximately {{convert|10|mi}} long and connects Raritan Bay on its south end with Newark Bay on the north. Along the New Jersey side it is primarily lined with industrial sites, part of which is called the Chemical Coast. The Staten Island side is primarily lined with salt marshes and is home to the Staten Island boat graveyard. It creates a border for Fresh Kills Landfill and Freshkills Park.

File: Arthur Kill from overpass in Staten Island, with Carteret in the background.jpg, in the background and small creek in foreground]]

Arthur Kill is an abandoned river channel carved by an ancestral phase of the Hudson River resulting from the blockage of the main channel of the Hudson at the Narrows by moraine or an ice dam. The size of Arthur Kill channel is large, suggesting that it was, for a time, the primary drainage from the region. However, it could not have been primary drainage for long because the river did not have enough time to carve a broad flood plain.[http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/nyc/morraines/raritanbay.htm U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923233758/http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/nyc/morraines/raritanbay.htm |date=September 23, 2006 }} {{source attribution}}

Because of the complex nature of the tides in New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary near the mouth of the Hudson River, the hydrology of Arthur Kill is still an open subject. In particular, the net flow of the channel is not well established. It was heavily polluted in the 1960s and 1970s, with few fish species able to live in it. Since the 1990s, crabs, baitfish, striped bass, and bluefish have returned to this water.

Arthur Kill contains two small uninhabited islands, Prall's Island and the Isle of Meadows, both of which are part of the borough of Staten Island. John's Cove is located near its northern end in New Jersey.

On the New Jersey side, the Elizabeth River,{{Cite web|url=http://njconservation.org/arthurkillgreenway.htm|title=Arthur Kill Watershed}} Rahway River, Morses Creek,{{Cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/Morses+Creek/@40.6339963,-74.204,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c24d2441d6cf1d:0x3d8b1330d350835a!8m2!3d40.6339922!4d-74.2018113|title = Morses Creek · Linden, NJ 07202}} and Piles Creek{{Cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/Piles+Creek/@40.6217097,-74.231448,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c3b3321b19cfa5:0xc038985ea240cce3!8m2!3d40.6217056!4d-74.2226933|title = Piles Creek · Linden, NJ 07036}} flow into the kill. The Passaic River and Hackensack River mouth at Newark Bay. On the Staten Island side, Old Place Creek,{{Cite web |url=http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/55405.html |title=Old Place Creek Map - NYS Dept. Of Environmental Conservation |access-date=2016-12-06 |archive-date=2016-12-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221003618/http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/55405.html |url-status=dead}} Fresh Kills (an estuary fed by the Richmond Creek and Main Creek), Bridge Creek (off Goethal Pond), and Sawmill Creek flow into the estuary.

File:ElizabethNJIndustry.JPG & Howland Hook]]

The channel is dredged periodically to a depth of {{convert|35|to|37|ft|1}} and a width of {{convert|600|ft}} to maintain its usefulness for commercial ship passage. As part of its Harboring Deepening Project, the Kill is being deepened to a depth of {{convert|50|ft}} to accommodate larger ships and allow for their passage while carrying full loads.{{cite web |url=http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index.ssf/2012/01/dredging_has_begun_in_arthur_k.html |title=Dredging has begun in Arthur Kill channel off Bayonne as port deepening project continues |work=NJ.com|date=4 January 2012 }}

A heavily used marine channel, it provides access for ocean-going tankers to industrial facilities along the channel itself. The Howland Hook Marine Terminal is located at its mouth at Newark Bay. It provided the primary marine access to the now-closed Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island and is the location of the Staten Island boat graveyard. The Arthur Kill Terminal is a proposed offshore wind port.

File:ArthurKill VerticalLift Goethals bridges.jpg and Arthur Kill Vertical Lift bridges]]

Arthur Kill is spanned by the Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing, as well as by the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge, a railroad bridge and the largest bridge of its type in the United States.

For many years the Kill was traversed by a ferry between Tottenville and the Perth Amboy Ferry Slip. Another ferry ran from the tip of Victory Boulevard in Travis to Carteret. Re-introduction ferry service between Carteret's Waterfront Park and Midtown Manhattan via Arthur Kill and Kill van Kull is planned.Higgs, Larry. [https://www.nj.com/traffic/2018/05/grant_floats_hopes_for_ferry_service_between_middl.html "This Middlesex County town may soon offer fast ferry service to N.Y."], NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, May 11, 2018, updated January 30, 2019. Accessed December 3, 2019. "The Federal Transit Administration awarded the grant this week to NJ Transit to purchase a 299-seat ferry for a proposed Carteret to Manhattan route. NJ Transit applied on behalf of Carteret , which will receive the money. The ferry route from Carteret's Waterfront Park, along the Arthur Kill to midtown, could transport passengers to the city in 54-minutes." As of 2021, funding for the construction of a landing dock and purchase of a boat was in place.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nj.com/news/2021/01/future-ferry-service-connecting-nj-and-staten-island-gets-a-5m-boost-from-the-state.html|title=Future ferry service connecting N.J. And New York gets a $5M boost from the state|date=20 January 2021|last=Higgs|first=Larry|website=NJ.com}}{{Cite web|last=Loyer|first=Susan|date=11 May 2018|url=https://eu.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/middlesex-county/2018/05/11/carteret-middlesex-manhattan-ferry-service/599866002/|title=Carteret ferry service to Manhattan moves closer to reality|website=MyCentralJersey.com}}

The Arthur Kill was a critical dividing line during the American Revolution, with the British holding Staten Island for the duration of the conflict while New Jersey remained largely in Continental hands. Numerous skirmishes, including the Battle of Staten Island, spanned the Arthur Kill.

The Pilgrim Pipeline, to pipe crude oil, kerosene, and diesel fuel through New York and New Jersey was proposed to terminate at the Linden side of the kill.Detailed map of the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline route https://arcg.is/0iaOHr

File:Tottenville ferry pilings jeh.JPG to Perth Amboy, New Jersey]]

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• Achter Col, New Netherland and Toponymy of New Netherland
• List of New Jersey rivers
• Lower New York Bay
• Hudson Canyon

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20041019044546/http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/project/newyork/factsh/pdf/AKOM.pdf U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Dredging Report, Dec. 2003]

{{New York City waterways}}

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Category:Straits of New Jersey

Category:Straits of Richmond County, New York

Category:Borders of New York (state)

Category:Borders of New Jersey

Category:Bodies of water of Middlesex County, New Jersey

Category:Bodies of water of Union County, New Jersey

Category:Port of New York and New Jersey

Category:Bodies of water of Staten Island

Category:Rahway River

Category:Bodies of water in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey