Holland tunnel

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Holland tunnel
Holland tunnel
Tunnel entrance, New Jersey side
use Road tunnel
traffic connection Interstate 78
place New York City
length 2608 m (north tube), 2551 m (south tube)dep1
Number of tubes 2 (each with 2 stripes)
construction
start of building 1920
completion 1927
business
operator Port Authority of NY & NJ
toll Round trip: min. $ 5.75 / vehicle; Max. $ 19.00 / axis
map
Holland Tunnel-New York-Streetmap.svg
Course of the Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River
location
Holland Tunnel (New York City)
Red pog.svg
Red pog.svg
Coordinates
East Portal in Manhattan ( New York City ) 40 ° 43 ′ 38 "  N , 74 ° 0 ′ 41"  W.
West Portal in Jersey City ( New Jersey ) 40 ° 43 ′ 48 "  N , 74 ° 2 ′ 21"  W.

The Holland Tunnel is a motorway tunnel on Interstate 78 under the Hudson River . It connects Manhattan Island 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 the two road tunnels under the Hudson River. The other tunnel is the Lincoln Tunnel .

description

Construction began in 1920. It was completed in 1927. It is named after Clifford Milburn Holland (1883-1924), chief engineer of the project, who died before it was completed. The tunnel is one of the oldest examples of tunnel ventilation, which became necessary due to the increasing carbon monoxide emissions caused by traffic.

The tunnel consists of two tubes, each of which has two lanes. The northern tube is 2608 m long, the southern one is somewhat shorter at 2551 m. Both tubes run under the mud of the Hudson River, the deepest point is about 28 m below the water surface at high tide. A 9-lane toll booth is on the New Jersey side. The toll is only charged for driving towards New York. A fixed amount must be paid for cash payments. There is a tiered tariff system for E-ZPass users.

The Holland Tunnel was added to the List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1982. In November 1993, the structure was awarded the status of a National Historic Landmark .

history

The concept that ultimately led to the construction of the Holland Tunnel resulted from a joint commission from New York and New Jersey . The commission originally proposed a bridge for reasons of cost, but this proposal was rejected in 1913 in favor of the tunnel. The reason was, after all, that a bridge that should not disrupt ship traffic would have had to run at least 60 meters above the surface of the water, and thus would have required considerably more space on the banks of the Hudson River for entrances and exits than the tunnel solution.

Over the next few years, a number of design proposals were developed. The first provided for a single-tube tunnel on which the traffic should have been in two levels. There were also suggestions for separate driving levels for slow and fast traffic, but in the end the concept of Clifford Milburn Holland, which provided for two separate tubes with two lanes each, was selected and Holland was appointed as the project's chief engineer.

Work on the tunnel, officially dubbed the "Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel Project", began in October 1920. In 1924, the day before the two halves of the tunnel under the Hudson were to meet, Holland died while an almond was being removed in a hospital in Michigan . Holland's successor was Milton H. Freeman, who also died after a few months. After Freeman's death, Ole Singstad took over the project, who oversaw the completion of the tunnel and designed its ventilation system.

The work on the tunnel took place under artificial overpressure to prevent water from entering the tubes. The workers had to go through several pressure locks when entering and leaving the tunnel in order to prevent diving disease .

Even so, it took seven years and the lives of 14 workers to complete the tunnel. The opening took place on November 13, 1927, and the tunnel was a complete success from the start. On the first day after opening, 45,694 vehicles passed through the tunnel, each paying a 50 cents toll that was collected to refinance the $ 48 million (USD) construction cost. In 1931 the tunnel was ceded to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey , which still operates the tunnel today. A total of USD 536.6 million had been invested in the tunnel through December 31, 2005, excluding the 48 million construction costs.

Teams of horses have always been banned from the tunnel. A few months before the tunnel opened, there were proposals that pedestrians could be allowed to pass through the tunnel if they paid tolls. However, these suggestions were rejected as “not encouraging” and there were never any more suggestions in this direction.

Accidents and terrorism

In 1949 a fire caused considerable damage to the south tube of the tunnel. Although no one was killed, the fire ended with 66 injuries and $ 600,000 in damage to the tunnel structure. As a result, the tunnel supervisor imposed strict bans on the transport of dangerous substances.

Drive through the Holland Tunnel from New Jersey to New York

After the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 , the tunnel was completely closed for almost a month, except for emergency vehicles. When it reopened, there were strict rules for the passage of trucks, which were in effect until November 17, 2003. After the terrorist attacks in London on July 7, 2005 , the cellular networks in the tunnel were switched off, but switched on again a few days later.

On July 7, 2006, according to newspaper reports , the FBI prevented an attack on the tunnel. The attack was supposed to cause the tunnel to collapse with a massive explosion and flood parts of the financial district of Manhattan. Officials said that this plan was doomed to failure in the first place because it was impossible to get a sufficient amount of explosives into the tunnel since trucks were banned from entering the tunnel, and most of the time Manhattan is about 0.6–3 m above the water surface.

Trivia

  • Although the tunnel is never mentioned by name in the film Daylight with Sylvester Stallone , in order to avoid defamation lawsuits from the tunnel authorities, the film takes place on a set based on the Holland Tunnel.
  • The tiles on the walls of the Holland Tunnel come from the German ceramics company Villeroy & Boch .

See also

literature

  • J. Rosenthal: The Holland tunnel under the Hudson. In: Journal of the Association of German Engineers , Volume 72, No. 41 (October 13, 1928), pp. 1464–1468.

Web links

Commons : Holland Tunnel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. 2012 to 2015 Toll Rate Table. panynj.gov, December 7, 2014, accessed March 27, 2015 .
  2. Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: New Jersey. National Park Service , accessed August 17, 2019.
  3. ^ Villeroy & Boch company history