The Kill van Kull is a narrow tidal strait between Bayonne in New Jersey and the North Shore of Staten Island, and it is one of the busiest waterways in the country. Enormous container ships, tankers and tugs squeeze through it on their way to and from the port at Newark and Elizabeth, passing so close to the shore that you feel you could touch them. Above it, the great steel arch of the Bayonne Bridge links the two sides.
The Staten Island side is a different world from the rest of New York City. Mariners Harbor and Port Richmond are working-class neighbourhoods of old wooden houses, churches and small shops, with a strong Hispanic presence, and further east, at Snug Harbor, a home for retired sailors founded in the nineteenth century has become a cultural centre with gardens, museums and a Chinese scholar's garden. At the north-east tip of the island, the Staten Island Ferry runs free to Manhattan, with views of the Statue of Liberty along the way.
The harbour has a story about a remarkable woman. Robbins Reef Lighthouse, a small iron tower on a rock off the Bayonne shore, was kept for over thirty years by Kate Walker, a German immigrant widow who raised her children there, tended the lamp and rescued dozens of people from the water. You can see the lighthouse from the shore, a tiny dark shape on the water.
As the finish of a Taconic Parkway ride, it comes after a day in the hills of the Hudson Valley. The Taconic is a scenic parkway that runs north through forests and farmland, with gentle curves and views of the Catskills, and it is a pleasure to ride, although it has some narrow, old-fashioned sections and no commercial traffic. Coming back, you have to deal with the highways and bridges of the city, with tolls, traffic and rough surfaces.
Bayonne and Staten Island have fuel, food and services, and the area has plenty of pizza, delis and Latin American restaurants. Stand on the shore of the Kill, watch a giant ship slide past, and feel the scale of the port.