Lincoln Tunnel | |
crosses | Hudson River |
Length | 2,504 meters |
Opening | 22-12-1937 |
Intensity | 108,700 mvt/day |
Location | Map |
According to Ablogtophone, the Lincoln Tunnel is a 2.5 kilometer tunnel in the United States. The tunnel is located under the Hudson River which forms the border between the states of New Jersey and New York. More precisely, the tunnel connects New Jersey suburbs, including Union City, Hoboken, and Weehawken, with midtown Manhattan in New York City, opening onto several Manhattan roads. The tunnel is a toll road.
History
The first tube was built from 1934. In December 1937 the first tunnel tube opened with a toll of 50 cents per car. The original design consisted of two tunnel tubes and work on the second tube was halted in 1938 and resumed in 1941. Due to a shortage of metal during the Second World War, the second tube opened with a two-year delay on February 1, 1945. Port Authority wanted a third tunnel, which was initially opposed by the city of New York because the underlying road network could not handle the traffic. A compromise was found and in May 1957 the third tunnel tube was opened.
Road connections
State Route 495 runs through the tunnel, originally the intention was to extend Interstate 495 on Long Island into the state of New Jersey to create an east-west connection across the middle of Manhattan. It never came and the SR-495 is a remnant of this. The three tunnel tubes handle 6 lanes of traffic. One lane is reserved exclusively for buses during the morning rush hour. During the morning rush hour, this bus lane handles 1,700 buses with 62,000 commuters. 120,000 vehicles use the tunnel every day. On the New Jersey side, the bridge joins SR-495, a freeway to SR-3, through a 360-degree turn to get to street level., a highway connecting several suburbs west of New York. On the Manhattan side, the tunnel terminates at several streets in the Hell’s Kitchen area, including a major bus terminal, 40th Street, 9th Avenue, and most importantly, 30th Street. To get to the other side of Manhattan to continue to Queens, one must take 34th Street to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.
Toll
The Lincoln Tunnel is a toll road, managed by the Port Authority. The toll is only levied towards New York and the toll rates are the same as for the Holland Tunnel, Bayonne Bridge, Goethals Bridge and George Washington Bridge.
The toll rate depends on the time of day and whether you have an E-ZPass. In 2018, the cash toll was $15 all day, $12.50 during rush hour with E-ZPass and $10.50 outside rush hour with E-ZPass. Traffic actually pays for the return trip at once.
During the morning rush hour, the waiting time at the toll plaza in Weehawken can be up to 30 to 45 minutes. In the evening rush hour the waiting times are much shorter because no toll is charged in the outgoing direction. This is to prevent serious congestion in the tunnel and in Manhattan. The traffic jams are therefore mainly moved to the state of New Jersey by the city of New York.