The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel -- officially known as the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, although this name is seldom used by locals -- is a toll tunnel in New York City that connects Red Hook in Brooklyn with Battery Park City in Manhattan. The tunnel consists of twin tubes that each carry two traffic lanes under the mouth of the East River. Although it nearly passes underneath Governors Island, the tunnel does not provide vehicular access to the island. With a length of 9,117 feet (2,779 m), the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is the longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel in North America.
The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is part of the Interstate Highway System, carrying the unsigned Interstate 478 (I-478). Formerly, it carried New York State Route 27A (NY 27A). The tunnel was officially renamed after former New York Governor Hugh Carey in 2010.
Video Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel
Description
The tunnel extends from the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan to the neighborhood of Red Hook in Brooklyn. The "Battery" name refers to an artillery battery located at that site during New York City's earliest days. The tunnel is owned by the City of New York and operated by MTA Bridges and Tunnels, an affiliate agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It has a total of four ventilation buildings: two in Manhattan, one in Brooklyn, and one on Governors Island that can completely change the air inside the tunnel every 90 seconds.
The tunnel carries 26 express bus routes that connect Manhattan with Brooklyn or Staten Island. They are the BM1, BM2, BM3, and BM4 operated by the MTA Bus Company, and the X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X7, X8, X9, X10, X11, X12, X14, X15, X17A, X17C, X19, X27, X28, X31, X37, X38, and X42, operated by MTA New York City Transit.
Maps Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel
History
Construction began on October 28, 1940 by the New York City Tunnel Authority, with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A large part of Little Syria, a mostly Christian Syrian/Lebanese neighborhood centered around Washington Street, was razed to create the entrance ramps for the tunnel. Many of the shops and residents of Little Syria later moved to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. The tunnel was designed by Ole Singstad and partially completed when World War II brought a halt to construction. After the War, the Triborough Bridge Authority was merged with the Tunnel Authority, allowing the new Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA) to take over the project. TBTA Chairman Robert Moses directed the tunnel be finished with a different method for finishing the tunnel walls. This resulted in leaking and, according to Robert Caro, the TBTA fixed the leaks by using a design almost identical to Singstad's original. The tunnel opened to traffic on May 25, 1950.
Robert Moses attempted to scuttle the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel proposal and have a bridge built in its place. Many objected to the proposed bridge on the grounds that it would spoil the dramatic view of the Manhattan skyline, reduce Battery Park to minuscule size and destroy what was then the New York Aquarium at Castle Clinton. Moses remained adamant, and it was only an order from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, via military channels, which restored the tunnel project, on the grounds that a bridge built seaward of the Brooklyn Navy Yard would prove a hazard to national defense. This edict was issued in spite of the fact that the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge were already seaward of the Navy Yard.
On December 8, 2010, New York State legislators voted to rename the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel after former Governor Hugh Carey. The tunnel was officially renamed the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel on October 22, 2012.
The tunnel was closed in preparation for Hurricane Sandy and completely flooded on October 29, 2012, after a severe storm surge. It reopened on November 13 following a cleanup process that included the removal of an estimated 86 million gallons (326 million liters) of water. The tunnel was the last New York City river crossing to reopen. On October 22, 2017, a pair of 25-ton floodgates were installed on the Manhattan-side openings of the tunnel; floodgates on the Brooklyn side are expected by the end of 2017.
Tolls
Since March 19, 2017, drivers pay $8.50 per car or $3.50 per motorcycle for tolls by mail. E-ZPass users with transponders issued by the New York E-ZPass Customer Service Center pay $5.76 per car or $2.51 per motorcycle. All E-ZPass users with transponders not issued by the New York E-ZPass CSC are required to pay Tolls-by-mail rates.
Open-road cashless tolling started on January 4, 2017. The tollbooths were dismantled, and drivers were no longer allowed to pay cash at the tunnel. Instead, cameras mounted onto overhead gantries located on the Manhattan side take photos of license plates of cars that do not have E-ZPass transponders, and tolls are mailed to them. For E-ZPass users, sensors detect their transponders wirelessly.
Interstate 478
I-478 is the unsigned designation for the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and its approaches. Its south end is at I-278 in Brooklyn, and its north end is at NY 9A (West Side Highway) in Lower Manhattan. As originally planned, I-478 would have continued north to I-78 at the Holland Tunnel and I-495 at the Lincoln Tunnel via the Westway project, which was cancelled in 1985.
The I-478 number was considered for other routes as well, including the following:
- The Lower Manhattan Expressway branch along the Manhattan Bridge, between I-78 (which was to use the branch to the Williamsburg Bridge) and I-278 (1958-1971)
- The Grand Central Parkway between I-278 and I-678 (1971)
Before I-478 was moved to the Westway project in 1971, that project was planned as I-695, which would have continued north along the Henry Hudson Parkway to the George Washington Bridge (I-95).
See also
- U.S. Roads portal
- New York Roads portal
- New York portal
- New York City portal
References
Notes
Further reading
- Caro, Robert A., The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, New York: Knopf, 1974.
External links
- nycroads.com about Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel
- "Sandhogs Toughest Job", September 1947, Popular Science
- Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel Construction Scenes (1947)--from the MTA's YouTube web link (1:18 video clip)
- Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel: Sixty Years--from the MTA's YouTube web link (6:13 video clip)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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