The Last Three Miles: Politics, Murder, and the Construction of America's First Superhighway

by Steven Hart

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Transport

216 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2007

Reviews

[ALLEN · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before there was a Triborough Bridge, there was a Pulaski Skyway. For that matter, before there was an Interstate Highway System, a Lincoln Tunnel, or even a New Jersey Turnpike, there was a Pulaski Skyway. It's that hulking, riveted steel eminence briefly glimpsed at the beginning of "The Sopranos," but it has never worked all that well. It is now banned to trucks, but motorists are always running off its wrong side and falling over its edge. (Nobody would dare to design such an inherently dangerous roadway today.)

Yet the Skyway is not without its virtues. It provided a crucial connection to the mouth of the Holland Tunnel on its east side and the city of Newark to its west, the vital "three miles" that connects the metropolis to the interior. In so doing, the Skyway set up a model for the emerging nation of superhighways and super-interchanges. Much more than the nuts-and-bolts (sorry) of its construction, this book details the era of big-labor politics, especially New Jersey's "Boss" Hague and his patronage army. While not a terribly long book, THE LAST THREE MILES makes for fine, informative reading. The lack of any kind of road map is heinous, though.

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, fun read that is putatively about the monstrous Pulaski Skyway leading into Manhattan, but is really about everything from early highways to Jersey politics to (most notably) Boss Frank Hague's Jersey City machine.

Frank Hague used mob muscle and gambling money to ascend to the head of the Jersey City government in 1917, and from then until 1948 he ran the city like some princes ran their countries. The police regularly monitored Western Union telegrams, tapped telephones, beat up public speakers, arrested people in bars for insulting the mayor, and put outsiders who promised to cause trouble (like Socialist presidential candidate Norman Thomas) on quick ferries to New York.

Besides gamblers and Jersey mob boss Frank Zwillman, Hague also tied his machine to Teddy Brandle, an ironworker union leader who also started his own construction insurance company (Brandlegrams) and labor-associated bank. He helped Hague run the city, but broke with him over the construction of the Jersey City Medical Center contracts, and later over the Pulaski Skyway. When the contractors on that bridge chose in 1930 to use non-Brandle labor, their projects were surrounded by hired thugs who threw rocks and threatened to kill the "scabs." Two murders and several beatings resulted and Hague succeeded in destroying Brandle's career. He in turn morphed into one of the most rabidly anti-labor mayors in the country, placing police on incoming highways to intercept CIO organizers, for instance, at least until the Supreme Court told him to stop in 1939.

Overall this a solid work of popular history that's a great introduction to urban political machine and road politics.

[Ariela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book but I just liked it.

[Sarah Cuneo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history, dry writing.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, crisp narration. However, this book did not wholly win me over. I think someone from the area and a commuter over the Pulaski Skyway and Holland Tunnel would be much more interested. Also, labor politics, union organization (such as the fitful birth of the CIO),and Mayor of Jersey City Frank Hague's political machine of corruption and bossism all figure highly in here. These are very interesting sociological dimensions and recent history of the 1930s, but I was hoping for more engineering challenges.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is very compelling, but not particularly well written. I read this as almost a prequel to Robert Caro's The Power Broker, but if I had to do it again, I'd probably skip The Last Three Miles and go straight for the Caro. The problem is simply one of organization. It was difficult to remember who many important figures were- if this book were structured more logically, it would be a much better read. It's also annoyingly slowed down by the author's opinion or snarky comment from time to time.

I applaud the effort, and feel more informed of the period for it, but this could have been a much better book than it was.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yet another book grabbed quickly to entertain myself while the kids were playing games at the library... A sometimes choppy, but otherwise enjoyable read detailing the planning and construction of the Pulaski Highway in New Jersey. It seems as though this roadway was the "perfect storm" in bridge-building: labor fights, political intrigue and bullying, seemingly unnecessary changes to the plan, and the all too sad fact that the bridge was unable to handle the traffic flow that it was originally built for.

[columbialion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye opening account to the early municipal history of Jersey City, the struggle for workers rights to organize under the "Tweedlike" mayor JC Frank Hague, who was described as a cross between Boss Tweed and Joseph Stalin. The Pulaski Skyway looms as the enduring monument to transportation "progress", the beginnings of urban sprawl and the site of labor unrest and abuse to the efforts to unionize.

[Christian Bauman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I blurbed this, and Steven is a good friend of good friend, so unabashedly biased, but even when from friends I don't trumpet what I don't like. Great read, whether or not you're from New Jersey.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a while back but was recently reminded of it. Hart's ability as a journalist makes this truly Jersey story come together.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was interesting, and I thought it would be a good read in light of the coming construction. I just wish there had been more about the actual construction of the Skyway.

[Tim Gillen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting from a historical perspective. A little dry overall.

I listened to the audiobook read by Dion Graham.