Holland Tunnel
The Holland Tunnel is a highway tunnel of Interstate 78 under the Hudson River. It connects the island of Manhattan in New York City with Jersey City, New Jersey.
The tunnel was originally known as the " Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel" or " Canal Street Tunnel", and is one of two highway tunnels under the Hudson River. The other tunnel is the Lincoln Tunnel.
Description
In 1920 started the construction. It was completed 1927. It is named after Clifford Milburn Holland ( 1883-1924 ), chief engineer of the project, who died before its completion. The tunnel is one of the oldest examples of a tunnel ventilation, which was necessitated by the traffic- related increase in carbon monoxide emissions.
The tunnel consists of two tubes, each of which has two lanes. The northern tube is 2608 m long, the southern one is with 2551 m slightly shorter. Both tubes run under the mud of the Hudson River, the deepest point is located approximately 28 m below the water surface at high tide. A 9 -lane toll plaza is located on the side of New Jersey. The toll fee is charged only for the trip to New York. If you pay cash USD 12 ( Motorcycles 11 USD) must be paid. For so-called E- ZPass users, there is a tiered tariff system. The toll is $ 9.50 during the period 6 to 10 clock and 16 to 20 clock on weekdays and 11-21 clock on weekends. Outside these hours, the toll for E- ZPass users is $ 7.50.
The Holland Tunnel was taken in 1982 by the American Society of Civil Engineers in the List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks.
History
The concept that eventually led to the construction of the Holland Tunnel, the result of a single Commission of New York and New Jersey. The Commission originally proposed for cost reasons a bridge before, but the proposal was rejected in favor of the tunnel in 1913. The reason finally was that a bridge that should the ship traffic does not interfere, at least 60 meters above the water surface would have to run, and so much more space would have been needed on the banks of the Hudson River for ascents and descents than the tunneling solution.
Over the next few years, some design suggestions were drawn up. The first saw in front of a single-tube tunnel on which the traffic in two planes should have run. Furthermore, there have been proposals for separate levels for driving slow and faster traffic, but was ultimately the concept of Clifford Milburn Holland, which provided for two separate tunnels, each with two lanes selected and Holland appointed chief engineer of the project.
Work on the tunnel, officially known as the " Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel Project" dubbed, began in October 1920. 1924, one day before the two tunnel halves should meet under the Hudson, Holland died during a tonsillectomy at a hospital in Michigan. Successor of Holland was Milton H. Freeman, who also died after a few months. After Freeman's death Ole Singstad took over the project, supervised the completion of the tunnel and its ventilation system designed.
Work on the tunnel took place under high air pressure to prevent water entered the tubes. The workers had more pressure locks pass through when entering and exiting the tunnel to avoid the bends. Fortunately, not a single worker was killed as a consequence.
Nevertheless required the completion of the tunnel seven years, and the lives of 14 workers. The opening took place on 13 November 1927 and the tunnel was from the beginning a huge success. On the first day after the opening of 45 694 vehicles passed through the tunnel, and each paid 50 cents toll, which was raised to 48 million U.S. dollars ( USD) to refinance construction costs. 1931, the tunnel to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was assigned, which operates the tunnel today. A total of 536.6 million USD were invested in the tunnel until 31 December 2005 without the 48 million construction costs.
Horse teams were relegated from time immemorial from the tunnel. A few months before the opening of the tunnel, there were suggestions that pedestrians might be allowed to pass through the tunnel, if they would pay toll. These proposals were but " not encouraging " and rejected as there was never again proposals in this direction.
Accidents and terrorism
1949 caused a fire considerable damage to the south tube of the tunnel. Although no one was killed, the fire ended with 66 injuries and $ 600,000 damage to the tunnel structure. As a result, the tunnel control imposed strict bans on the transport of dangerous substances.
After the attacks of September 11 on the World Trade Center, the tunnel was completely closed except for emergency vehicles for almost a month. The reopening strict rules for the passing of trucks which were valid until November 17, 2003 a. After the terrorist attacks of 7 July 2005 in London, the mobile networks were shut down in the tunnel, but turned on a few days later.
On 7 July 2006, the FBI prevented according to newspaper reports, a stop on the tunnel. The stop should bring a massive explosion the tunnel to collapse and put parts of the financial district of Manhattan under water. Officials were reportedly that this plan would have been doomed to failure, since it is on the one hand impossible to get a sufficient amount of explosives in the tunnel, since it is forbidden trucks to pass through the tunnel, and on the other hand, the majority of Manhattan approximately 0.6 m 3 m above the water surface.
Trivia
- Although the tunnel is in the movie Daylight starring Sylvester Stallone to prevent libel suits the tunnel authority never mentioned by name, the film takes place on a set that is based on the Holland Tunnel.