Bloomfield is the name of a neighborhood on the West Shore

West Shore, Staten Island

West Shore refers to the section of the New York City borough of Staten Island that borders the Arthur Kill, between the Staten Island Expressway and the Fresh Kills...

 of the New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 borough

Borough (New York City)

New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...

 of Staten Island

Staten Island

Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It lies immediately to the north of Travis

Travis, Staten Island

Travis is a neighborhood at the west-central shore of Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City. Some local geographers classify Travis as being on the island's West Shore, while others reckon it as a Mid-Island neighborhood.-Name:...

. Prall's Island

Prall's Island

Prall's Island is an uninhabited island in the Arthur Kill between Staten Island, New York, and Linden, New Jersey, in the United States. It is one of the minor islands that are part of the borough of Staten Island in New York City...

 is situated in the Arthur Kill

Arthur Kill

The Arthur Kill is a tidal strait separating Staten Island, New York from mainland New Jersey, USA, and a major navigational channel of the Port of New York and New Jersey. Kill is from the Middle Dutch word kille, meaning "riverbed" or "water channel"...

 off its coast.

Originally named Daniell's Neck when first settled in the 17th Century, it was later called Merrell Town after a local farmer. Its present name first appeared on a local map in 1874.

Throughout the 20th Century, very few people actually resided in Bloomfield, much of its land being used by construction companies to store heavy equipment, such as cement mixers. A large oil storage terminal maintained by Gulf Oil

Gulf Oil

Gulf Oil was a major global oil company from the 1900s to the 1980s. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies...

 could also once be found there, leading to one of the service roads of the West Shore Expressway

New York State Route 440

New York State Route 440 is a state highway located entirely on Staten Island in New York City. The route acts as a connector between the two segments of New Jersey Route 440, running from the Staten Island community of Richmond Valley to the south to Port Richmond to the north...

 receiving the name of Gulf Avenue; the 440 acre (1.8 km²) terminal (built in 1936), which housed 82 tanks having a total capacity of 215 million US gallons (814,000 m³), was closed in 1998, and the tanks have since been demolished.

1973 TETCo disaster

On February 9, 1973, during a cleaning operation, 42 workers were inside one of the TETCo natural gas tanks which had been supposedly been completely drained ten months earlier. However, ignition occurred, causing a plume of combusting gas to rise within the tank. Two workers near the top felt the heat and rushed to the safety of scaffolding outside. The other 40 workers were not so fortunate. They all died as the concrete cap on the tank rose 20–30 feet in the air and then came crashing back down, crushing them to death.

Recent history

Commercial, but not residential, development accelerated rapidly in the early 2000s, when several large office complexes were constructed; this in turn led to the establishment of other businesses, including a Hilton Hotel on South Avenue, the main thoroughfare in 2003.
Bloomfield's vast expanses of open space have made it the focus of many ambitious proposals in the 2000s; the latest involves the possible building of a NASCAR

NASCAR

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...

 racetrack at the site of the former Gulf Oil facility. But the area has yet to witness the kind of new-home construction that has been encountered virtually everywhere else on Staten Island since the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge that connects the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City at the Narrows, the reach connecting the relatively protected upper bay with the larger lower bay....

 opened in 1964.

Transportation

Bloomfield is served by the S46/S96 bus along South Avenue. A proposal for the West Shore Light Rail

Staten Island light rail

Staten Island light rail proposals refer to any number of projects in the New York City borough of Staten Island. These proposals are among the several light rail projects that have been floated in New York City in recent years.- North Shore Light Rail :...

has it running down the Travis Branch of the North Shore Railroad, stopping at a station in Bloomfield.