BAYONNE, NJ-It's not just New Jersey and you, but also New York,that's "Perfect Together." The Port Authority of New York and NewJersey gathered their Board of Commissioners on Thursday, appointedby the governors of each state, to work out a mutually beneficialdeal involving the World Trade Center site and the Bayonne Bridge.At its core, the PANJ has agreed to help build SilversteinProperties Inc.'s proposed office buildings on the WTC site, at acost of roughly $1 billion, through public financing and subsidies.Published reports say this bargain was agreed upon providing thePANY assist in the financing for the $1 billion revamp that theBayonne Bridge desperately needs.

New Jersey in exchange for its help in providing financing andsubsidies to complete the towers on the eastern side of the sitewill receive help for its $1 billion project of raising orrebuilding the Bayonne Bridge. This is a point of economicviability for the Garden State, as it risks having inadequateaccess to Newark Bay's port, should the bridge remain at itscurrent height above Arthur Kill. The Port Authority did not returnGlobeSt inquiries by deadline.

Currently, construction is underway to widen the Panama Canal toaccommodate newer, larger cargo ships which would not fitunderneath the Bayonne Bridge's status quo. Last year the Army Corpof Engineers calculated that the bridge would need to be raised toa height of 215 feet or rebuilt entirely, both of which fall around$1 billion to accomplish.