Background
Long Island is connected via tunnels and bridges to Staten Island, Manhattan, and the Bronx. People who wish to travel from Long Island to New York's mainland or New England via automobile have no better option than cross the Throgs Neck Bridge or the Whitestone Bridge, which are located on the northwestern corner of Long Island. Ferry service between Connecticut and Long Island is available year round; the drawback is that it is a slow-moving vessel, and it therefore takes enough time to cross the Long Island Sound that, if a traveler is going some place in western Connecticut, it may be more time-effective to drive rather than use the ferry, even from points farther east than Port Jefferson, the very town from which the ferry originates. Private companies operate automobile ferries between Bridgeport, Connecticut and Port Jefferson on central Long Island, and between New London, Connecticut and Orient Point on eastern Long Island.
A bridge or tunnel to the center of the island would make most of the island more accessible, and would reduce the travel time of certain routes by hours. However, the cost of a bridge would be large and it would be likely to have adverse environmental impacts. If built, a span across the widest portion of the Sound between New Haven and Shoreham would be approximately 35-40 km (22-25 miles) in length, possibly making it one of the longest bridges in the world.
Read more about this topic: Long Island Sound Link
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)