1973 Staten Island gas explosion

West Shore refers to the section of the New York City borough of Staten Island that borders the Arthur Kill, between the Staten Island Expressway and the Fresh Kills. The Arthur Kill shoreline north of the expressway—most commonly called Port Ivory—is considered part of the North Shore, while the land along the Arthur Kill south of Fresh Kills is generally included within the South Shore. While only one residential neighborhood—Travis—can actually be found on the West Shore, other place names are used to identify locations to the north of Travis, chief among them Bloomfield and Chelsea. A study by the New York City Department of City Planning also identified Howland Hook/Arlington, Rossville, Woodrow, Charleston and Tottenville as being part of the West Shore, along with Fresh Kills Park.The West Shore Expressway, which connects the Staten Island Expressway with the Richmond Parkway at the Staten Island terminus of the Outerbridge Crossing, is the area's principal north-south thoroughfare, while the western end of Victory Boulevard, in Travis, is its main east-west road. Through the late 20th century, land use in the West Shore was dominated by industrial activities (Travis was once named "Linoleumville" as a consequence of a linoleum factory having once been built there), most notably oil refining and construction; in the latter example, much property in the region is devoted to the storage of heavy equipment, such as cement mixers. These have led to some incidents, such as the 1973 Staten Island gas explosion, which killed 40 people. In addition, a few horse stables and riding academies exist in the area, which is the least densely populated section of Staten Island. Many species of migratory birds can be found in the area, especially on nearby Prall's Island. In the 1980s, a string of large office complexes were built along South Avenue, which begins in Mariners Harbor on the North Shore, and ends in Travis; other businesses arrived later, including several hotels, Hilton Garden Inn in 2001, Hampton Inn & Suites in 2007, Comfort Inn and Holiday Inn Express in 2010. A large Con Edison electrical plant stands at the site of the former linoleum factory in Travis, which is also the home of the Teleport, a high-tech industrial park built in the early 1980s, mostly to house companies engaged in the communications industry. In Fall of 2018 the Matrix Global Logistics Park opened in Bloomfield, which is distribution center for companies such as Amazon and Ikea, bringing more than 2,000 jobs and development to the West Shore. In January, 2020 Amazon announced it will expand its footprint on Staten Island, leasing a 450,000 square foot warehouse next to its existing 855,000 sq. ft. fulfillment center.The West Shore's vast expanses of unused land has made it the focus of many ambitious and controversial development proposals at the start of the 21st century. The most prominent of these involves the possible building of a NASCAR racetrack there — a plan that has engendered spirited debate in Staten Island political circles. A 2004 proposal included a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) oval track that would be constructed on a largely unused 440-acre (1.8 km2) site.

Bloomfield is the name of a neighborhood on the West Shore of the New York City borough of Staten Island. It lies immediately to the north of Travis-Chelsea and to the west of Bulls Head. Prall's Island is situated in the Arthur Kill off its coast. Originally named Daniell's Neck when first settled in the 17th century, it was later called Merrell Town after a local farmer. Its present name first appeared on a local map in 1874.

Prall's Island is an uninhabited island in the Arthur Kill between Staten Island, New York, and Linden, New Jersey, in the United States. The 89-acre (0.36 km2) island is one of the minor islands that are part of the borough of Staten Island in New York City. The island is named for a descendant or descendants of early Staten Island settler Arendt Jansen Prall Van Naarden (c. 1647–1725) (in Dutch, Praal), probably his grandson Abraham Prall (1706–1775), a local farmer. It was originally known as Dongan's Island, after New York Governor Thomas Dongan (1634–1715), who took the office in 1688. The name was later corrupted to Duncan's Island. Prall's Island did not take hold until the late 19th century. Around 1910, the water between Staten Island and the island was known as Prall's River but was eventually returned to Arthur Kill. The island is now owned by the City of New York and is maintained by New York City Department of Parks and Recreation as a bird sanctuary.

Piles Creek is a stream in Union County, New Jersey. It empties in the Arthur Kill tidal strait in Linden on the Chemical Coast between the mouth of Morses Creek and the mouth of the Rahway River just below the Linden Generating Station, a power plant. It is one of several tributaries of the Arthur Kill along with other rivers and streams including the Elizabeth River, Rahway River, Morses Creek, Fresh Kills, and, via Newark Bay, the Passaic River and the Hackensack River. Rutgers University ecology scientists have documented the bizarre transformations to Piles Creek marine species caused by contamination and toxicity. The creek was extended as part of wetlands mitigation project for the expansion of the New Jersey Turnpike. GAF Materials Corporation was once located along the creek. Public Service Enterprise Group (PSE&G) opened a solar farm on a brownfield site along the shore of the creek in 2014.

The Goethals Bridge () is the name of a pair of cable-stayed bridge spans connecting Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Staten Island, New York, in the United States. The spans cross a strait known as Arthur Kill, and replaced a cantilever bridge span built in 1928. The bridge is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The original cantilever span was one of the first structures built by the Port Authority. The New Jersey side is about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Newark Liberty International Airport. The bridge was grandfathered into Interstate 278, and named for Major General George Washington Goethals, who supervised construction of the Panama Canal and was the first consulting engineer of the Port Authority. In 2013, two new cable-stayed crossings, running parallel to the old cantilever bridge and replacing it, were approved. The new eastbound span opened on June 10, 2017, at which time the original span was closed. The old cantilever span was dismantled in January 2018 and the new westbound span opened on May 21, 2018.

The Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Railroad Bridge is a rail vertical-lift bridge connecting Elizabethport, New Jersey and the Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island, New York, United States. The bridge was built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1959 to replace the Arthur Kill Bridge, a swing bridge opened in 1890. It contains a single track that is used mainly to carry garbage out of New York City, as well as to transport freight to destinations in western Staten Island. The bridge parallels the Goethals Bridge, which carries Interstate 278. It has the longest lift span of any vertical-lift bridge in the world, with two 215-foot (66 m) towers and a 558-foot (170 m) truss span that allows a 500-foot (152 m) channel. It clears mean high water by 31 feet (9.45 m) when closed and 135 feet (41 m) when lifted.

The Arthur Kill Bridge was a railroad bridge connecting Staten Island, New York to New Jersey's Chemical Coast by crossing the Arthur Kill. It existed from 1888 until 1959, when it was replaced by the current Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge, built nearby. It was the only land connection to Staten Island until 1928.

Old Place is a neighborhood located in the northwestern section of Staten Island. The neighborhood is located south of Arlington, and west of Mariners Harbor. It is part of Community Board 1.

The Howland Hook Marine Terminal, operating as ‘’’GCT New York,’’’ is a container port facility in the Port of New York and New Jersey located at Howland Hook in northwestern Staten Island, New York City. It is situated on the east side of the Arthur Kill, at the entrance to Newark Bay, just north of the Goethals Bridge and Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge. Built by American Export Lines, the site originally housed a B & O coal dumper, which was completed in 1949. The facility had a capacity of 100 cars per eight-hour shift. The dumped coal was delivered via barge to utilities in the harbor. It was in the process of being dismantled by Summer 1965. The terminal was purchased in 1973 by New York City for $47.5 million. In 1985, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey leased the terminal from the city for a period of 38 years. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey currently contracts Global Container to operate a container terminal on the site. The facility is 187 acres (76 ha) in size, but there have been plans for expansion with the acquisition in 2001 of the adjacent 124-acre (50 ha) Port Ivory, a former shipping port operated by Procter & Gamble.The terminal operates a 3,012 feet (918 m) long wharf on the Arthur Kill, with three berths for container ships. The wharf depth is 50 feet (15.24 meters) for 1,200 feet (365.76 meters) , 41 feet (12.50 meters) for 1,100 feet (335.28 meters) , 35 feet (10.67 meters) for 700 feet (213.36 meters) . A fourth 1,340 feet (410 m) long berth with 50 feet (15.24 m) depth is planned on the old Port Ivory site. Facilities include container storage, a deep-freeze refrigerated warehouse and United States Customs Service inspection. The facility is also used to transfer containerized municipal waste from barges to trains, handling roughly half of New York City's barged trash volume.The terminal includes an on-site seven-track ExpressRail intermodal facility that connects via the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge to New Jersey and the national rail network. Two tracks are used for transferring waste containers. The rail facility opened in mid-2007 and uses part of the once-abandoned North Shore Branch of the Staten Island Railway, which leads into the Arlington Yard, and the Travis branch, along the West Shore.

Chelsea is a small neighborhood located on the West Shore of Staten Island in New York City. It is bordered on the north by South Avenue, on the east by the William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge, on the south by Meredith Avenue, and on the west by the Arthur Kill.The area was originally named Pralltown after a family that was granted land there in 1675. During the Revolutionary period it was called Peanutville due to the storage there of quantities of peanuts for the passengers using the ferries to travel between New York and New Brunswick. In the 1950s, there were plans for Consolidated Edison to build a massive electric plant on 100 acres (40 ha) of land that it owned in Chelsea.Chelsea is mostly open marsh and is relatively undeveloped, although there are some businesses and one-family houses. It borders on the Teleport and is the site of Staten Island's West Shore Plaza and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Meredith Avenue Bus Depot. Chelsea is served by the S46, S96, S62 and S92 local buses and the SIM32 express bus.

The Teleport is a suburban-style 100-acre business park east of New York State Route 440 and west of the Bulls Head neighborhood of Staten Island in New York City. It includes five Class A office and specialized buildings totaling 700,000 square feet, as well as additional development-ready sites.The Teleport was developed in the mid-1980s by the government of New York City and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), which manages it under contract to the city, focusing on new technologies and offering high-speed voice, data and video services via satellite and fiber optic connectivity.In 2001 AT&T, the Teleport's biggest tenant, moved 4,000 employees out of two office buildings on the site. They were sold in 2009 to the Nicotra Group, LLC and renamed Corporate Commons, with a major tenant being the St Paul's School of Nursing.The New York City Economic Development Corporation and the PANYNJ retain control over the available development acreage.The campus was expanded with additional office and medical space and a rooftop farm in 2017.

Arlington Yard is a freight yard located on the North Shore Branch right of way of the Staten Island Railway in Staten Island, New York, United States. It lies west of the former Arlington station, east of Western Avenue, and north of the Staten Island Expressway in the Port Ivory neighborhood. The yard leads into the Travis Branch of the railway, the Howland Hook Container Terminal, and the Arthur Kill Lift Bridge to Elizabeth, New Jersey and the Chemical Coast and is part of the ExpressRail network.The 2007 opening of the Staten Island Transfer Station and the ExpressRail facility, along with the reopening of the Arthur Kills bridge, has reactivated the yard. The use of the Howland Hook Container Terminal to transfer containerized municipal waste from barges to trains, servicing roughly half of New York City's barged trash volume, has added to the rail traffic handled by the yard. (The facility that handles the other half is located directly across Arthur Kill.)