The Holland Tunnel

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The Holland Tunnel

The concept for the Holland Tunnel was developed in 1906.1 In 1906, a coalition of the New York State and New Jersey Interstate Bridge and Tunnel Commission began studies for a bridge connecting lower Manhattan to Jersey City, New Jersey.2 By the end of World War I (1918), the number of cars and trucks on U.S. roads had skyrocketed. This trend did not differ in the streets of New York City.3 At this time the Hudson River ferries were carrying about 30 million vehicles each year (24,000 vehicles a day3) from New York to New Jersey. This had become a major problem for commuters and a solution was needed.2

Since it would be easier and less expensive to build a bridge rather than a tunnel, a bridge was initially thought to be a better solution. However, to construct a bridge over the Hudson River it would require a minimum clearance of 200 ft. for ships to travel to and from Hudson River ports. Since the Manhattan side of the Hudson did not meet the 200-foot elevation requirement needed for a bridge, new and expensive apparatuses would have to be built on the New York side. Also, a bridge would be affected by poor weather conditions more than a tunnel. In 1913, the joint coalition finally decided to construct a tunnel.2

Over the next couple of years, a number of designs were proposed for the tunnel. The first proposal was presented by a firm called Jacobs and Davies. This plan called for a bi-level tunnel. The upper level would carry slower vehicles and the lower level would be used for express vehicles. An engineer named George Goethals who would later become the chief engineer of the Port Authority made the second proposal. His plan was a bi-level design in which each level would carry opposing lanes of traffic, two lanes in each direction.2 Both of these designs were not taken to the next step. The proposal of Clifford Milburn Holland (see Figure 1) was adopted as the design of the tunnel. Figure 1. Picture of Clifford Milburn Holland. http://www.panynj.gov/tbt/hthist.HTM

His plan called for two separate tubes that would contain two lanes of traffic going in the same direction. After Holland's proposal was adopted he was named Chief Engineer of the “Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel Project” in 1919.

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