Holland Tunnel - History

History

Passage across the lower Hudson River was only by ferry for centuries. The first tunnels to be bored below the Hudson River were the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad's uptown and downtown tunnels, constructed in the first decade of the 20th century to link the major railroad terminals in New Jersey with Manhattan Island (they currently run PATH trains). The Pennsylvania Railroad's twin tunnels, constructed to serve the new Pennsylvania Station, soon followed. Once tunneling had been shown to be feasible, increasing automobile traffic led to interest in a roadway crossing the river as well.

The concept for what would become the Holland Tunnel was developed in 1906 by a joint commission between New York and New Jersey. The commission initially considered building a bridge for cost reasons, but this plan was abandoned in favor of a tunnel in 1913 when it was determined that the cost of land for accessways to a suitably raised bridge would be prohibitive as a height of 200 ft (60 m) was considered the minimum necessary to avoid interfering with shipping.

Over the next several years, a number of design proposals were evaluated for the new tunnel. The first two called for a single tube containing two levels of traffic. One, authored by engineer George Goethals specified that traffic on each level would travel in a different direction. The other, by the firm Jacobs and Davies, called for a slightly different tube diameter, with an "express" level and a level for slower traffic. Both designs were eventually passed over in favor of a new type of design proposed by engineer Clifford Milburn Holland, in which two separate tubes would each contain two lanes both going in the same direction. Holland's proposal was adopted, and he was named Chief Engineer of the project. Promotional materials compared the diameter and capacity of the proposed tunnel with the smaller-diameter railroad tunnels.

In 1920, the New Jersey Interstate Bridge and Tunnel Commission and the New York State Bridge and Tunnel Commission appropriated funds for what was then referred to as the "Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel Project". Construction began on March 31, 1922, with a crew of workers starting digging at the corner of Canal Street and West Street. On October 27, 1924, the day before the two halves of the tunnel were scheduled to be linked, 41-year-old Holland died of a heart attack in a sanatorium in Battle Creek, Michigan, attributed by individuals cited in The New York Times to the stress he endured overseeing the tunnel's construction. "Holing through" ceremonies scheduled for that day, in which President Calvin Coolidge would have remotely set off an explosion to connect the two sides of the tunnel, were canceled out of respect for Holland's death.

The project was renamed the Holland Tunnel in memory of its first chief engineer by the New York State Bridge and Tunnel Commission and the New Jersey Interstate Bridge and Tunnel Commission on November 12, 1924. Holland was succeeded by Milton H. Freeman, who died of pneumonia in March 1925, after several months heading the job. After Freeman's death, the position was occupied by Ole Singstad, who oversaw the completion of the tunnel and designed its pioneering ventilation system.