Popular scenic view at Staten Island park now blocked by large security fence - silive.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A new security fence is being constructed on a bridge in Clove Lakes Park, and the barrier is raising alarms among nature lovers.

The bridge on Martling Avenue near Clove Road has been a favorite vantage point for generations of Staten Islanders to view the breathtaking scenery in the 193-acre park that straddles West Brighton, Westerleigh, and Sunnyside.

On Friday, workers from the city Department of Transportation were in the process of erecting a chain-link fence that resembles the unsightly bulwarks stationed on expressway overpasses.

The new fencing obscures the idyllic vistas that served as the background for photos of weddings and other milestones. Staten Islanders no longer are able to fish from the bridge, toss flowers into the water to commemorate loved ones or lean over the railing to admire the thriving aquatic life.

“I don’t like to see that go up,” Eddie Engelson of West Brighton told the Advance/SILive.com.

“I’ve been coming here since I was a kid, and we like to see the water, and now we’re going to have a fence in front of us.”

Engelson said it’s “terrible” that people no longer will be able to fish off of the bridge and believes that more frequent security patrols, rather than fencing, is the answer to whatever issues the barrier is intended to fix.

“Things aren’t what they used to be,” he added.

The fencing is part of a city Department of Transportation capital-improvement project.

“This new fencing will improve safety on the bridge,” a DOT spokesperson told the Advance/SILive.com. “NYC DOT installs pedestrian fencing whenever it replaces or rehabilitates a bridge structure that crosses navigable bodies of water, roadways, or railroads.”

The spokesperson went on to share that the fence is a permanent component of the bridge that will ensure the safety of those passing beneath the Martling Avenue Bridge at Martling Lake.

Often referred to as Staten Island‘s version of Central Park, Clove Lakes Park is known for its bodies of water that include Brooks Lake, Martling’s Pond and Clove Lakes, its serpentine rocks and native woodlands.

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