Hurricane Sandy devastated Staten Island. The outer borough suffered the worst out of all of New York, enduring a 16-foot-high surge of seawater pummeling towards unequipped neighborhoods. The result? Homes destroyed. Millions of dollars in damage. And 23 dead. But Staten Island wants to ensure that such a catastrophe doesn’t happen again. To do so, they’re looking to King Zheng of ancient China and his effective Great Wall for keeping the unwelcome the f*ck out.
Of course, Staten Island wants to protect itself from another possible super storm, not foreign attackers like King Zheng. But the idea is basically the same. The wall, proposed by the Army Corps, would span four miles from the Verrazano Bridge to Oakwood Beach. Technically it would be a levee, since the sides of the wall would taper off, making it somewhat of a ridge. The project seems to be well underway with nearly two-thirds of the $579 million price tag already accounted for.
And Staten Island appears to be using the proposed wall as an opportunity to spruce up the neighborhood a bit. In lieu of simply building an ominous, oppressive mass of steel and concrete, the wall will be covered in vegetation and foliage. It will also feature a boardwalk on the top for beachgoers to stroll along and take selfies like tourists do at the original Great Wall.
A project of this magnitude will undoubtedly take some time. The building process, jumping through bureaucratic hoops and securing the funds could slate the wall’s completion years down the road. But time is of the essence. The three-year anniversary of Sandy is approaching in late October, which is hurricane season in the Atlantic. And due to El Niño, this year could be a doozy.
