LINCOLN TUNNEL

The 'Lincoln Tunnel' is a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) long tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey and the borough of Manhattan in New York City.

Contents

History

Traffic

Events in the Tunnel

Route numbers

Culture

References

External links

History

The tunnel was designed by Ole Singstad. The project was funded by the New Deal's Public Works Administration. Construction began on the first tube in 1934. It opened to traffic in December 1937, charging $0.50 per passenger car. The costs of construction was $75,000,000. Omero C. Catan, a salesman from Manhattan, drove the first car through the tunnel, after waiting in line for 30 hours.
The original design called for two tubes. Work on the second was halted in 1938 but resumed in 1941. Due to war material shortages of metal, completion was delayed for two years. It opened on February 1, 1945 at a cost of $80 million, with Michael Catan, brother of Omero, selected to be the first to lead the public through the tube.^[2]
A third tube was proposed by the Port Authority, but initially opposed by the City of New York, which was trying to get the Port Authority to help pay for the road improvements that the City would need to handle the additional traffic. A compromise was worked out, and the third tube opened in May 1957 to the south of the original two tunnels.

Traffic

The three tubes carry six traffic lanes in total. During the morning rush hour one traffic lane in the center tube called the ''XBL'' is used exclusively by buses. The New Jersey approach roadway, locally known as "the Helix" or "the Corkscrew", spirals in a full circle before arriving at the toll booths in front of the tunnel portals.
The tunnel carries about 120,000 vehicles per day, making it one of the busiest vehicular tunnels in the world. The ''XBL'' is by far the busiest and most productive bus lane in the United States. The lane operates weekday mornings between 6:15 and 10:00 a.m., accommodating approximately 1,700 buses and 62,000 commuters, mainly to the Port Authority Bus Terminal.^[3] The ''XBL'' carries more trans-Hudson commuter trips into midtown Manhattan each day than any other mode, including commuter rail into Penn Station.

Events in the Tunnel

Shortly after noon on September 8, 1953, two armed men, Peter Simon and John Metcalf, attempted to rob a home in South Orange, New Jersey. The men were driven off by the residents, one of whom reported the license plate on their car to the police, who put out an alert. A patrolman, Nicholas Falabella, noticed the car just as it passed the toll booth and ordered the driver to stop the vehicle. The driver sped off into the tunnel, firing at the police. A Port Authority policeman, Donald Lackmun, was hit in the leg. The police commandeered a delivery truck and gave chase, exchanging gun fire with the renegade car while weaving in and out of traffic. In all 28 shots were fired, ten by the gunmen and 18 by the police. The vehicle came to a stop about three fourths of the way through the tunnel. Simon was hit in the head.^[4]

Route numbers

With the cancellation of the Mid-Manhattan Expressway, intended to carry Interstate 495 through New York City to the Queens Midtown Tunnel and onto the Long Island Expressway, the NYDOT and NJDOT demoted the Lincoln Tunnel, Queens-Midtown Tunnel, and the freeway link to NJ 3 as state routes. Some signs still list the tunnels as I-495. Although the Federal Highway Administration still considers the midtown tunnel to be an Interstate, the Lincoln Tunnel is no longer on the Interstate system. In New Jersey, the freeway was officially demoted to NJ 495 and very few signs still read "I-495". 34th Street links the disjointed segments of I-495.

Culture

★ In Abbott and Costello Go to Mars two scenes take place in which a spaceship piloted by them flies into the tunnel, after which a drunk who was just cured of alcoholism sees and thinks he is going crazy, and so goes into a bar to have more alcohol.

★ The Oscar winning acclaimed film ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969) shows the Midtown skyline just as the bus carrying Joe Buck from Texas curves down the "helix" approach and into the tunnel.

★ In Stephen King's book ''The Stand'', two of its characters exit New York through the Lincoln Tunnel. The city is dead after a virus epidemic and the tunnel is clogged with cars and corpses.

★ In the 2003 film ''Elf'' the lead character (Will Ferrel) walks through the Lincoln Tunnel to get to New York City.

★ In the opening segment of the HBO series ''The Sopranos,'' main character Tony Soprano is seen exiting the Tunnel's north tube as he heads for the New Jersey Turnpike.

References

1. 2005 NYSDOT Traffic Data Report: AADT Values for Select Toll Facilities
2. New Lincoln Tube Will Open Today
3. Lincoln Tunnel Exclusive Bus Lane Enhancement Study
4. Two Seized in 28-Shot Battle With Police in Lincoln Tube

External links

★ Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

★ Lincoln Tunnel from NYCRoads.com

★ ''XBL'' Exclusive Bus Lane Enhancement Study