Staten Island's north shore faces New Jersey across the narrow Kill Van Kull, and Port Richmond sits right on it, under the steel arch of the Bayonne Bridge. That bridge was raised in recent years, its roadway lifted higher on the old arch so that the giant container ships heading for Newark and Elizabeth could pass underneath, an engineering feat carried out while traffic still flowed. From the waterfront, you watch tugs and ships slide past almost close enough to touch.
Port Richmond was once a busy commercial centre, with shipyards, oyster beds and a main street of shops and theatres. It declined in the twentieth century and has been revived in recent decades by Mexican and Latin American immigrants, whose bakeries, taquerias and grocery stores now line the old streets. The neighbourhood also has an old pizzeria that New Yorkers cross boroughs for, and tavern-style thin-crust pizza is something of a Staten Island tradition.
The Staten Island Ferry, free and running around the clock from St George, a few kilometres east, gives one of the best views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. It does not take vehicles anymore, but it is worth a round trip on foot.
Coming back from the Delaware Water Gap, the final stretch crosses New Jersey on the interstates and arrives over the Goethals or Bayonne bridges, both tolled. Traffic is heavy at rush hour, and the roads on Staten Island are often congested.
Fuel and food are easy on Richmond Avenue and Forest Avenue. Before you go home, find a spot on the waterfront near the bridge at dusk: a ship the size of a city block easing under the arch, its lights coming on, is a strange and wonderful last image after a day on Pennsylvania's river roads.