Arthur Kill in the context of "Middlesex County, New Jersey"

Staten Island (/ˈstætən/ STAT-ən) is the southernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York. The borough is separated from the adjacent state of New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With a population of 495,747 in the 2020 Census, Staten Island is the least populated New York City borough but the third largest in land area at 58.5 sq mi (152 km); it is also the least densely populated and most suburban borough in the city.

A home to the Lenape Native Americans, the island was settled by Dutch colonists in the 17th century. It was one of the 12 original counties of New York state. Staten Island was consolidated with New York City in 1898. It was formerly known as the Borough of Richmond until 1975, when its name was changed to Borough of Staten Island. Staten Island has sometimes been called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government and the media. It has also been referred to as the "borough of parks" due to its 12,300 acres of protected parkland and over 170 parks.

New York Bay is the large tidal body of water in the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary where the Hudson River, Raritan River, and Arthur Kill empty into the Atlantic Ocean between Sandy Hook and Rockaway Point.

The Bayonne Bridge is a steel through arch bridge that spans the Kill Van Kull between Staten Island, New York, and Bayonne, New Jersey, United States. It carries New York State Route 440 and New Jersey Route 440, with the two roads connecting at the state border at the river’s center. It has the sixth-longest steel arch mainspan in the world, the longest in the world at the time of its completion. The bridge is also one of four connecting New Jersey with Staten Island; the other two roadway bridges are the Goethals Bridge in Elizabeth and Outerbridge Crossing (which also carries Route 440) in Perth Amboy, and the rail-only span is the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge, all of which cross the Arthur Kill.

The original four-lane roadway was designed for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by Swiss master bridge-builder Othmar Ammann and architect Cass Gilbert. Completed in 1931, it included a walkway, and offered 151 feet (46 m) of vertical clearance above the water.

The South Shore is a geographical term applied to the area in the New York City borough of Staten Island, south and east of the island's ridge of hills (and Richmond Creek and Fresh Kills south of Historic Richmond Town) along the waterfront and adjacent areas from the Narrows to the mouth of the Arthur Kill. Many observers prefer to restrict its scope to the neighborhoods located between the shoreline of Raritan Bay on one side and Richmond Creek and Fresh Kills on the other, thus encompassing the neighborhoods of Great Kills to Tottenville only. Those who use this narrower definition of the "South Shore" prefer the term "East Shore" for the communities that lie along Lower New York Bay, and inland for approximately 2 to 2+1⁄2 miles, from Bay Terrace and Richmondtown to as far north as Grasmere and Concord. The South Shore (under the narrower definition) is represented in the New York City Council by Frank Morano.

Geologically, the area is an outwash plain of glacial sediment formed from the edge of the terminal moraine, and continues as an underwater shoal into Lower New York Bay, where it was a prime oystering ground in the 19th century.