Portfolio Book Club: Not Your Ordinary Beach Reads

Posted on July 16, 2015 by PANYNJ PORTfolio

You might consider these selections less as titillating beach reads and more as compelling choices for very smart readers, who possess more than a passing interest in transportation, history and why the Port Authority, for almost a century, has done more to shape the New York Port Region than practically anything else.

While this book club functions differently than say, Oprah’s Book Club, our goals are equally worthy. We aspire to carve a niche of readers who want a deepened understanding of the Port Authority and the New York/New Jersey region.  Oh yes, we’re completely open to suggestions too.

What follows are four scrupulously researched and definitive works with first sentences to whet your reading appetite . . .

Highway Under the Hudson:  A history of the Holland Tunnel by Robert W. Jackson

“The TWO MEN met, at the governor’s request, in the dining hall of the Army and Navy Club on the corner of Connecticut Avenue and I Street NW, in Washington, D.C.  It was the middle of January 1917.”

The Power Broker:  Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro

“Robert Moses was born December 18, 1888.  He was not given a middle name because his mother saw no reason for one.”

Crossing Under the Hudson: The Story of the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels by Angus Kress Gillespie

Opening epigraph by Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, 1920:

“As [Newton Archer] paced the platform, waiting for the Washington express, he remembered that there were people who thought there would one day be a tunnel under the Hudson through which the trains of the Pennsylvania railway would run straight into New York.  They were of the brotherhood of visionaries who likewise predicted the building of ships that would cross the Atlantic in five days, the invention of a flying machine, lighting by electricity, telephone communication without wires, and other Arabian Night marvels.”

Empire on the Hudson:  Entrepreneurial Vision and Political Power at the Port of New York Authority by Jameson W. Doig

Opening to Chapter 12 – Breaking an Airline Monopoly

“By the late 1940s, it was a central principle at the Port Authority that no new project would be undertaken unless it was expected to become financially self-supporting.”

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The Building of the Lincoln Tunnel: Titans’ Work Beneath the Hudson

Posted on July 14, 2015 by PANYNJ PORTfolio

By Roz Hamlett, Editor

In the late 1920s, despite the overwhelming financial success of the Holland Tunnel, traffic congestion in mid-town Manhattan remained a huge problem.  But no one could have aniticipated that the stock market crash in 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930s would make financing a new trans-Hudson tunnel crossing such a tough nut to crack.  In order to obtain financing, the Port Authority turned to the Progress Works Administration, a federal New Deal agency that in 1933 loaned the Port Authority $37,500,000 in return for the agency’s agreement to build one tube instead of two.

What follows is a slideshow of photographs taken during construction of the first tube of the Lincoln Tunnel between 1935 and 1937 and the cast of characters who tunneled beneath the Hudson River, who newspaper reporter, L.H. Robbins, dubbed as “Big Irishmen, Italians, Negroes, Poles and Swedes, ox-strong, rough-clad, and spattered with mud, plaster and red lead.  A heroic race they are, they and the stout-hearted Sandhogs, gamely and proudly doing Titans’ work down under the tide, under the town, making the world convenient for the rest of us.”

Work on the second tube began in 1938, but because of labor and material shortages caused by World War II, the work was suspended and the second tube was not ready until 1945.  The Port Authority decided in 1951 to add a third tube, which was completed in 1957, a full thirty years after the opening of the Holland Tunnel.

A traditional groundbreaking ceremony took place on Thursday, May 17, 1934 with separate exercises on either side of the Hudson River.
Once land on the west side of Manhattan had been cleared of old tenement buildings, engineers excavated a construction shaft to provide vertical access to tunnel operations, including staircases on one side and electrical cables on the other for electricity and pipes carrying compressed air to keep the Hudson River from rushing into the tunnel. Within this shaft, workers known as “Sandhogs” assembled the cutting shield, weighing over 400 pounds, to initiate the burrowing beneath the Hudson. Holes were first drilled at the face of the tunnel, and then the drill holes were loaded with explosives and detonated.
After the smoke cleared, the rubble was removed.
A closeup of the cutting shield. The steel edge projects forward at the tops and the sides like the visor of a cap and protects workers underneath from falling debris. A battery of hydraulic jacks with a thrust of 6,000 tons pushed the cutting shield through the earth and into the silt and rock of the riverbed.
Workers installed the framework for pouring the concrete slab in which roadway would be supported. A movable frame supports the ceiling and the sides of the walls. 12. Like the Holland Tunnel, the Lincoln Tunnel in cross-section was constructed like a box within a circle. As the work proceeded, these workers install fresh air ducts underneath the roadway and exhaust ducts above the ceiling to accommodate the ventilation system.
Workers tightening the tunnel bolts. Most of the skilled sandhogs on the job received an average of $10 for a day’s work, which consisted of two three-hour shifts with three hours’ rest in between.
A single chalked line marked the underwater boundary between New Jersey and New York.
The tiles are laid as part of the finishing stages.
Tunnel lighting is installed.
The Lincoln Tunnel at completion is 1.5 mile long stretch connecting Weehawken, New Jersey to Manhattan at 39th St. It is to become the busiest vehicular tunnel in the world.
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#Throwback Thursday: The First Female Toll Collectors

Posted on July 9, 2015 by PANYNJ PORTfolio

In early 1944, the following ad appeared in the classified section of the New York Times:

HELP WANTED -Women Toll Collectors-$160 Monthly-Shift work at George Washington Bridge, Holland and Lincoln Tunnels-Height 5’2″ minimum. Age 21 to 35. Weight:  115 to 140 pounds.  Bring references which will be carefully investigated. Change-making experience desirable but not essential.  Good health requisite.  Women employed in war work or essential industries will be be accepted without a certificate of availability.  Applicants must be citizens and should bring a birth certificate.  Apply daily except Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – Office of the Personnel Director – Room #1500 – The Port of New York Authority – 111 Eighth Avenue, New York City.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t locate photos of these intrepid women who were among the first to enter the workplace in the aftermath of World War II.  But in tribute to Ms. Elizabeth Branch, the extraordinary woman who commemorated her 50th anniversary this past spring as a toll collector at the Holland Tunnel, we offer this photo slideshow of the Port Authority’s very professional and well-coiffed toll collectors circa 1960.

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