Spanning the decades: A look at the history of New York City’s tunnels and bridges

There are more than 2,000 bridges and tunnels in and around New York City. Some, of course, are better known — and more expensive — than others.

So, break out your EZ-PASS for our in-depth look at some of the most iconic bridges and tunnels of the Big Apple.

Brooklyn Bridge: The Eighth Wonder of the World

When the Brooklyn Bridge opened in May of 1883, it was an engineering achievement dubbed "The Eighth Wonder of the World," according to the History Channel.

The notorious and corrupt Boss Tweed — the man who opposed the creation of the early pneumatic subway system — loved the idea of a bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn, which were still two different cities back then. In fact, he was so interested that he racked up $65,000 of bribes to get the $1.5 million of bonds issued to back the massive undertaking.

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A look at the bridges and tunnels of NYC through the years

Of course, Tweed wasn't just involved in the project out of the goodness of his heart — he wanted to skim some money off the top, like he usually did with public works projects. Construction began in 1869, but Tweed was arrested in 1871 — though his devious plans seemed almost a harbinger of bad things to come.

In the course of construction, somewhere between 20 and 30 men died, including the bridge's designer, John Roebling. After his foot got crushed between pilings and a boat, the German engineer had some toes amputated and later died of tetanus before construction even began. His 32-year-old son took over the job, but later became partially paralyzed from a bad case of the bends — acquired during the dangerous pressurized construction process — and had to let his wife oversee the rest of the construction.

It was the world's longest suspension bridge when it opened in 1883, and there was a parade with an hour-long fireworks display to celebrate. Though it's free today, the Brooklyn Bridge originally cost a penny to cross by foot, a nickel by horse and a dime by wagon.

Queensboro Bridge: Feelin' Groovy Over Roosevelt Island

The idea of building a bridge between Queens and Manhattan came up all the way back in 1804. Decades later, John Roebling — the ill-fated Brooklyn Bridge designer — proposed a design involving two narrow suspension spans with a cantilever bridge in the middle, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

By the time the bridge design was finalized, Gustav Lindenthal was in charge of the project and the final plan ended up being a double-decked cantilever bridge. Originally, it was to be called the Blackwell's Island Bridge, as that was the name for what is now called Roosevelt Island.

Construction started in 1901 and, by the time it was opened to traffic in 1909, the Queensboro was the longest cantilever bridge in the country, according to the New York City Department of Transportation.

The bridge today doesn't look quite like it did at first. The lower inner roadways once carried trolleys, but were rebuilt for cars in the 1930s. Over the course of the 1950s, other public transit tracks were removed to make the bridge entirely vehicular. Though the finials atop the towers remained, the decorative spires that once topped them were removed circa 1960, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

In 2012 it was renamed the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge but, thanks in part to a Simon and Garfunkel song, it's also known as the 59th Street Bridge.

Holland Tunnel: The Longest of its Day

When the Holland Tunnel opened in 1927, it was the longest underwater tunnel in the world at 8,557 feet — or more than 1.5 miles.

At the time, it was groundbreaking not just because of its length but because of its exhaust system, according to transit historian Andy Sparberg, who authored "From a Nickel to a Token."

"That was pioneering because it was the first time a long tunnel has been built specifically for vehicular traffic and one of the challenges was the carbon monoxide," he said. Other long tunnels were made for electric trains, which didn't create the ventilation challenges posted by cars.

The need for a vehicular passageway between Jersey City and lower Manhattan had been tossed around since at least the early 1900s. With the Brooklyn Bridge as the only crossing open to traffic, most drivers had to rely on ferries. Adding in a bridge could have impeded shipping traffic, so in 1913 it was a tunnel that got approved.

Work on the tunnel began in 1920, according to Port Authority. Although what is now known as Port Authority took over tunnel operations in 1930, the project was started by the New Jersey Interstate Bridge and Tunnel Commission and the New York State Bridge and Tunnel Commission.

The first man to oversee the project was Clifford Holland, whose name the tunnel now bears. Originally, it was to be a rather forgettable name: Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel. Holland, a Harvard-trained engineer who specialized in tunnel-making, had previously overseen the construction of some of the city's first underwater subway tunnels.

Unfortunately, Holland had a nervous breakdown in 1924 and died of a heart attack shortly thereafter.

The next chief engineer to take over the project — Milton Freeman — died just five months later, so the crossing was ultimately completed by Ole Singstad.

During the construction process, engineers experimented with different ways to get the deadly exhaust fumes out of the closed tunnel. Somewhere around 2,000 tests were conducted to figure out exactly how much noxious gas a tunnel full of cars would produce, according to "The Encyclopedia of New York City."

The result is a ventilation system with enough fans to replace the tunnel air every 90 seconds. Fumes are ventilated through the ceiling and fresh air is pumped in by the curb. By fall 1927, the tunnel's opening day was drawing near and the world's first mechanically ventilated underwater tunnel still needed some final testing.

Engineers doused an old car in gasoline and lit it on fire in the middle of the tunnel just to test the ventilation and fire suppression systems. The test went off without a hitch and on November 13, the tunnel was opened to the public with much fanfare.

There were fireworks, festivities and — for more than 40 years — 50 cent fares.

Lincoln Tunnel: A Three-Tube Affair

After the success of the Holland Tunnel, the newly formed Port Authority got approval to dig the Lincoln Tunnel.

The tunnel was built in three phases. While construction began in 1934, the center tube opened in 1937 at a cost of $85 million, as the New York Times reported at the time. The north tube opened in 1945, four years later than intended according to a 1937 LIFE article. The south tube didn't open until 1957.

To keep the water out during the construction process, the tunnel was pressurized during construction, which meant that workers had to go through a series of compression and decompression chambers just to get to work every day. To get to the frontline of the digging, sandhogs — the tunnel workers — had to enter a compartment and wait as the air pressure was increased to match the next compartment. Then, they moved forward and wait till the pressure in that compartment was increased until it matched the next one.

They'd have to repeat that process until they got to the dig site, gradually adjusting to the higher and higher pressure much like deep-sea divers.

As the rock drills and tunnel shields pushed the digging forward, sandhogs bolted giant iron rings in place, they poured cement shields and used dynamite to break rocks when necessary.

As with the Holland Tunnel, one crew started digging from the New Jersey side and another dug from the New York side and, with careful engineering, they were able to meet in the middle.

George Washington Bridge: A Double-Decker Success

When it opened in 1931, the George Washington Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world.

"This will be a highly successful enterprise," then Governor Franklin Roosevelt told the throngs who attended the opening ceremony in October of that year, according to The History Channel.

"The great prosperity of the Holland Tunnel and the financial success of other bridges recently opened in this region have proven that not even the hardest times can lessen the tremendous volume of trade and traffic in the greatest of port districts."

Othmar Ammann, a Swiss immigrant, proposed the bridge design that ultimately became the George Washington Bridge, according to the Port Authority. Construction started in 1927 with the building of the bridge's two towers. Then, workers strung the four main cables — a yard each in diameter — from one bank to the other before hanging the steel suspenders and, finally, building the road.

The project was completed eight months ahead of schedule, although it has since been expanded. In 1946 another two lanes were added and in 1960s the six-lane lower deck — sometimes called "Martha Washington" — was installed.

To this day, it's the only New York City bridge across the Hudson River.

Queens Midtown Tunnel: A Difficult Dig

After a groundbreaking in 1936, the Queens Midtown Tunnel opened in 1940, MTA archivist Mary Hedge told the Daily News. Although it is now the MTA that owns and operates the tunnel, the MTA didn't exist until 1968 so it was the New York City Tunnel Authority, which later merged into Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, which in turn became MTA Bridges and Tunnels.

The tunnel was intended to mitigate bridge traffic congestion with one of the largest public works projects of the New Deal days. At the helm of the massive undertaking was Ole Singstad, the same man who oversaw the completion of the Holland Tunnel.

Since the Queens Midtown was the third of the city's tunnels, engineers had a better understanding of the possible dangers of construction. Hedge said there was always a nurse on hand to deal with the side effects of working under compression and, as a result, there were no deaths.

Despite an exceptionally difficult dig underneath the rocky East River, the tunnel was completed in just four years. One of the keys to completion was a lot of dynamite. It was a $58 million project, according to AM New York.

Originally, it cost just a quarter to pass through the tunnel.

Although the tunnel hasn't been expanded with any lane additions, the MTA did oversee $132 million in renovations between 1998 and 2004, according to the "Encyclopedia of New York City."

In 2012, the tunnel closed for a time after it flooded during Superstorm Sandy.

Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel: Almost a Bridge

If urban planner Robert Moses had his way, this would be the Brooklyn-Battery Bridge, not the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.

That didn't happen for a few reasons, according to Sparberg. For one, the government expressed concerns about creating a possible target for enemy bombers looking to block access to the nearby naval yard.

"Also became a personal thing because FDR was opposed and he hated Moses," Sparberg explained.

"Even Roosevelt's wife wrote a couple newspaper columns opposing a bridge there." Thus, the project became a tunnel.

Construction started in 1940 — with Singstad at the helm — but took a decade to complete.

"When the government declared war, the war effort focused on aircraft construction and facilities for the war so steel became in short supply — so the government decided to curtail steel shipments for urban structures," Hedge explained. The tunnel had to be shut down and deliberately flooded until after the war.

By the time construction resumed, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority was the agency in charge, so it was Robert Moses who oversaw the completion of the project.

At the time it opened, Hedge said, "It was the longest vehicular tunnel in the United States."

In 2012, the tunnel was renamed after late governor Hugh Carey.

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge: Robert Moses' Last Stand

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is kind of spelled wrong. In theory, it's named after an Italian explorer but, as Smithsonian Magazine pointed out, his name was actually Giovanni da Verrazzano — with two Z's. Some sources just reference Verrazano as a less-preferred spelling.

In any case, the idea of a bridge across the Narrows — the body of water between Staten Island and Brooklyn — had been a topic of discussion since the later 1800s, according to "The Encyclopedia of New York City."

It was the last bridge built under the watchful eye of Robert Moses, according to Hedge. Moses typically preferred naming structures for places instead of people, so it was originally to be titled The Narrows Bridge, but Italian-Americans lobbied to name it after the famous explorer who was the first European to lay his eyes on New York Harbor.

Even though the anchorages on either side of the bridge were sited on forts, on the Brooklyn side of the bridge somewhere around 8,000 residents were displaced to build the bridge. Although the displaced Brooklynites surely would not have agreed, on opening day in 1964 Moses called the structure a "triumph of simplicity and restraint."

This is the first in a two-part series

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