Product Description

In the tradition of Robert Caro's The Power Broker, a sweeping, investigative history of the building of the road connecting Manhattan to the rest of the country.

At the dawn of America's love affair with the automobile, cars and trucks leaving the nation's largest city were unceremoniously dumped out of the western end of the Holland Tunnel onto local roads wending their way through the New Jersey Meadowlands.

Jersey City mayor Frank Hague—dictator of the Hudson County political machine and a national political player—was a prime mover behind the building of the country's first "superhighway," designed to connect the hub of New York City to the United States of America. Hague's nemesis in this undertaking was union boss Teddy Brandle, and construction of the last three miles of Route 25, later dubbed the Pulaski Skyway, marked an epic battle between big labor and big politics, culminating in a murder and the creation of a motorway so flawed it soon became known as "Death Avenue" —now appropriately featured in the opening sequence of the hit HBO series The Sopranos.

A book in the tradition of Robert Caro's The Power Broker and Henry Petroski's Engineers of Dreams, The Last Three Miles brings to vivid life the riveting and bloodstained back story of a fascinating chapter in the heroic age of public works.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #314948 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Review
A revealing look....Hart uses his considerable narrative talent to tell an engaging human story. -- Henry Petroski, author of Engineers of Dreams and Success Through Failure

About the Author
Steven Hart is an award-winning journalist who has written for the New York Times, Salon, and the Home News Tribune in New Jersey's Middlesex and Union counties (where Robert Caro worked), among other publications. He lives in New Jersey.

Customer Reviews

Top-notch political, industrial history piece -- sheds light on a long overlooked element of modern America!
I live in North Jersey, but this book is relevant to anyone interested in American history, the changes this country underwent when the automobile became commonplace, and the evolotion of modern machine politics and bossism. This exhaustively researched, yet economically written book is full of insight and fascinating information about the power struggles that ensued as American cities tried to cope with the changes wrought by the need for roads.

Frank Hague is not as widely known as other political bosses of his era, but he should be, and Mr. Hart's smooth style and astute writing bring the decades-long Jersey City mayor to life and fill in many blanks about him. Hague's controversial reign had a permanent and very tangible impact in New Jersey, New York, and, in fact, throughout the nation.

The Last Word on the Pulaski Skyway
There's something repulsive, yet strangely compelling, about the Pulaski Skyway, the grimy eyesore that the author aptly describes as "a uniquely efficient generator of traffic accidents." Deride it you must, but the Skyway is a fitting landmark for the squalid industrial wasteland it straddles. You'll want to buy and read this book in a hurry, before the inevitable collapse of the rusty hulk -- which even today, after some 75 years of service, plays a vital role spewing traffic in and out of New York City. It can't be too long before the monstrosity falls down, as anyone can attest who regularly drives the wretched span linking the Holland Tunnel and points west.

This well-researched little book tells the complete story of the Skyway's ill-starred design and construction. But by way of context, it necessarily tackles a much bigger story: the life and times of the notoriously corrupt Frank Hague, long-serving mayor/dictator of Jersey City, and the bloody battles waged by trade unions locked out of the Skyway project -- a forgotten, sad chapter in America's history.

A missing piece of history
Let me start by saying that I was born in Jersey City in 1940 and lived there until 1956. My father had his business there and after I finished school, I wound up in the family business. Because my dad was always interested and somewhat involved in politics, I still retain some knowledge and awareness of that one of a kind era.

I can vividly remember going to Journal Square and passing over the manmade cuts that looked like canyons to a young boy. And when I attended Dickinson High School, looking down on the approaching traffic to the Holland Tunnel.

This is a book that I've been looking for someone to write for many years. If you are from Jersey City or Hudson County and were born before 1950, so many memories will return. If you have any interest in machine politics, union labor or history in general, this is a great find. I couldn't put the book down and was very disappointed when I was finished.

Mister Hart could do us all a favor by supplementing his research and writing a complete history of Jersey City (Hudson County).