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That is a neat reference to something many have forgotten. I believe that the Narrows connection was originally part of the dual contracts proposals, and they actually started building a tunnel back in 1923, I believe it started in Owl's head park in Bay Ridge and they built about 150 feet of tunnel before the project was canned (might have been when Hylan was elected out of office, not sure). The idea was to connect SIRT to the 4th avenue subway, and the SIRT actually bought BMT style cars anticipating this connection. Subways by that point were well known to cause real estate booms, but whether this would have caused Staten Island to become more like Brooklyn is something we'll never know. Given how long a trip it would be if you took a SIRT train then rode over the 4th avenue subway, not sure it would be faster than the train to the ferry, especially if you worked in lower manhattan. I know there was another attempt at allowing subways to connect to Staten Island, using the Verazzano bridge, but Moses would never have allowed that.
The other map is interesting, too, I lived not that far from where the proposed airport was, that is where a shopping plaza is now and a residential neighborhood, on the other side of the Hutchinson is where Freedomland was built and where co-op city and Bay Plaza now exist
I believe there was a golden opportunity to extend the subway to Staten Island in the early 60s via the Verrazano Bridge. The distance between the Sea Beach line as it emerges from the 4th Avenue tunnel and the SIRT Grasmere station is 5 miles. A connection between these points could have been accomplished by running the tracks along the center of the Verrazono Bridge approach road in Brooklyn, then over the bridge, and then along the center of the Staten Island Expressway with a hookup to the SIRT. Three branches would exist, the current SIRT branch running to Tottenville and a shuttle to St. George (similar to the Rockaway line), and another to the mid-Island area via the expressway. No tunneling would have been needed. Unfortunately Robert Moses had no foresight outside of building highways.
My dream for Staten Islanders is to :
1] Reactivate the North shore line and have a connection to an extension with the NJTransit Light rail at the Bayone Bridge.
2] While there is room, make a west shore line and connect in Totenville.
3 Tunnel a central line right through mid island connecting west shore with east shore.
