Bridge of the Week #70: Travis Ave. Bridge

I'm actually going to try to get these last several bridges in pretty quickly here, so here goes. This bridge actually falls under the category of "don't even bother." The Travis Ave. Bridge on Staten Island in the Travis neighborhood sits on Travis Ave. (naturally) and crosses the Fresh Kills Main Creek. It sits about a quarter of a mile east of Victory Boulevard on a stretch of road about a mile long on the way to Richmond Ave. that has no sidewalk, no shoulder and no respect for the speed limit. Not good for running. The bridge itself is a standard steel and concrete bridge, not very long, not very interesting.

The road runs down the middle of parkland and a wildlife refuge, off-limits to human visitors, and it doesn't connect to anything or go on the way to anywhere of interest to runners, except to bridge freaks like me. It is actually not far from the Staten Island Mall, and not far from the site of the future Fresh Kills Park, but there are better ways to get to either location than this road. The wetlands and creek areas around here are nice, but there are better places to go to get a glimpse of them.

Travis, the town, was named after Colonel Jacob Travis, an early resident of the area. The neighborhood is one of the city's more sparsely populated, and has a somewhat small-town feel to it.