Queens Midtown Tunnel
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Roads
Toll Information
The Queens Midtown Tunnel
was opened in 1940 by the New York City Tunnel Authority to relieve
traffic congestion on the city's East River bridges. One of the largest
public works projects of the New Deal era, it represented the most
advanced tunnel engineering techniques of its day. The tunnel became
a Triborough facility in 1946, when the New York City Tunnel Authority
and the Triborough Bridge Authority were consolidated to form the
Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority.
Ole Singstad
was the designer and chief engineer of the tunnel. His experience
as chief engineer of the Holland Tunnel enabled him to meet the challenge
of excavating the rocky, unusually difficult conditions under the
East River. The diameter of each of the Queens Midtown Tunnel's twin
tubes is one and a half feet wider than that of the older Holland
Tunnel, to accommodate the wider cars of the period.
The Queens Midtown
Tunnel serves as a major connection between midtown Manhattan and Queens.
On the Manhattan side is Murray Hill, an attractive residential neighborhood.
The Queens portal is in the Hunters Point district of Long Island City,
a historic entryway to the borough and a rail and ferry transfer point
in the 19th century.
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