The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA),
doing business as
A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...
MTA Bridges and Tunnels, is an affiliate agency of the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...
that operates seven toll bridges and two tunnels in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. In terms of traffic volume, it is the largest bridge and tunnel toll agency in the United States, serving more than a million people each day and generating more than $1.9billion in toll revenue annually as of 2017.
, its budget was $596 million, funded through taxes and fees.
The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority was founded in 1933 as the Triborough Bridge Authority (TBA). The agency was named after its first crossing, the
Triborough Bridge
The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (RFK Bridge; formerly known and still commonly referred to as the Triborough Bridge) is a complex of bridges and elevated expressway viaducts in New York City. The bridges link the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, a ...
. The Triborough Bridge Authority was reorganized as the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority in 1946, and subsequently began using the name MTA Bridges and Tunnels in 1994. In addition to operating all nine toll crossings located entirely within New York City, the TBTA also controlled several buildings such as the
New York Coliseum
The New York Coliseum was a convention center that stood at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, New York City, from 1956 to 2000. It was designed by architects Leon Levy and Lionel Levy in a modified International Style, and included both a low bui ...
and the
East Side Airline Terminal, both of which have been demolished.
Facilities
The seven bridges are:
*
Robert F. Kennedy Bridge
The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (RFK Bridge; formerly known and still commonly referred to as the Triborough Bridge) is a complex of bridges and elevated expressway viaducts in New York City. The bridges link the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, a ...
(colloquially known by its previous name, the Triborough Bridge) is the agency's flagship crossing, and its original namesake. It connects
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
,
the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, and
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, via
Randalls and Wards Islands
Randalls Island (sometimes called Randall's Island) and Wards Island are conjoined islands, collectively called Randalls and Wards Islands, in New York County, New York City, , and is named after the assassinated former
United States Senator
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
from New York,
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
.
*
Bronx–Whitestone Bridge
The Bronx–Whitestone Bridge (colloquially referred to as the Whitestone Bridge or simply the Whitestone) is a suspension bridge in New York City, carrying six lanes of Interstate 678 over the East River. The bridge connects Throggs Neck and ...
, which connects the Bronx and Queens.
*
Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge
The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge ( ) is a suspension bridge connecting the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. It spans the Narrows, a body of water linking the relatively enclosed New York Harbor with Lower New York Bay and t ...
, which connects
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
and
Staten Island.
*
Throgs Neck Bridge
The Throgs Neck Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City, carrying six lanes of Interstate 295 (I-295) over the East River where it meets the Long Island Sound. The bridge connects the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx with the Bay Ter ...
, which connects the Bronx and Queens.
*
Henry Hudson Bridge, which connects Manhattan and the Bronx.
*
Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge
The Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge (originally and often referred to as the Marine Parkway Bridge) is a vertical-lift bridge in New York City, New York, that crosses Rockaway Inlet. The bridge, which opened on July 3, 1937, con ...
, which connects Brooklyn and
the Rockaways
The Rockaway Peninsula, commonly referred to as The Rockaways or Rockaway, is a peninsula at the southern edge of the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, New York. Relatively isolated from Manhattan and other more urban parts of ...
in Queens. It is co-named after former
Brooklyn Dodgers and
New York Mets
The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...
first baseman, and later Mets' manager,
Gil Hodges
Gilbert Ray Hodges (''né'' Hodge; April 4, 1924 – April 2, 1972) was an American first baseman and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played most of his 18-year career for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers. He was widely regarded as t ...
.
*
Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge
The Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge (originally Cross Bay Bridge or Cross Bay Parkway Bridge) is a toll bridge that carries Cross Bay Boulevard across Jamaica Bay in Queens, New York City, between Broad Channel and the Rockaway Peninsula.
...
, which connects
Broad Channel
Broad Channel is a neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It occupies the southern portion of Rulers Bar Hassock (known colloquially as "Broad Channel Island"), the only inhabited island in Jamaica Bay.
Th ...
to the Rockaways, both in Queens.
The two tunnels are:
*
Hugh L. Carey Tunnel (colloquially known by its former name, the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel), connects Brooklyn and Manhattan. It is named after former
New York State Governor
The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York and the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces.New York Constitution article IV ...
Hugh L. Carey.
*
Queens–Midtown Tunnel
The Queens–Midtown Tunnel (also sometimes called the Midtown Tunnel) is a vehicular tunnel under the East River in New York City, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens. The tunnel consists of a pair of tubes, each carrying two ...
, which connects Queens and Manhattan.
History
Founding
MTA Bridges and Tunnels was originally founded as the Triborough Bridge Authority (TBA), which was organized to head the construction of the Triborough Bridge. The structure had started construction in 1929 but stalled during the
Great Depression due to a lack of funding.
In February 1933, a nine-person committee applied to the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) for a $150 million loan for projects in New York state, including the Triborough Bridge. However, although the RFC favored a loan for the Triborough project, the mayor at the time,
John P. O'Brien, banned the RFC from giving loans to the city. Instead, O'Brien wanted to create a bridge authority to sell bonds to pay for the construction of the Triborough Bridge as well as for the planned Queens–Midtown Tunnel between Manhattan and Queens.
Robert Moses, the New York City parks commissioner, also pushed the state legislature to create an authority to fund, build, and operate the Triborough Bridge.
A bill to create the TBA passed quickly through both houses of the state legislature, and was signed by Governor
Herbert H. Lehman that April. The bill included a provision that the authority could sell up to $35 million in bonds and fund the remainder of construction through bridge tolls. George Gordon Battle, a Tammany Hall attorney, was appointed as chairman of the new authority, and three commissioners were appointed. Battle resigned from the chairmanship in November 1933, citing ill health, and was replaced by
Nathan Burkan Nathan Burkan (November 8, 1879 – June 6, 1936) was a Romanian-born Jewish-American lawyer from New York.
Life
Burkan was born on November 8, 1879 in Iași, Romania, the son of Moritz Burkan and Tillie Armm.
Burkan immigrated to America in 18 ...
.
Early years
In its first year, the TBA was in turmoil: by January 1934, one of the TBA's commissioners had resigned, and New York City Mayor
Fiorello H. La Guardia
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...
was trying another TBA commissioner, John Stratton O'Leary, for corruption. As a result,
Public Works Administration (PWA) administrator
Harold L. Ickes
Harold LeClair Ickes ( ; March 15, 1874 – February 3, 1952) was an American administrator, politician and lawyer. He served as United States Secretary of the Interior for nearly 13 years from 1933 to 1946, the longest tenure of anyone to hold th ...
refused to distribute parts of the RFC grant allotted to the Triborough Bridge, until the existing funds could be accounted for. After O'Leary had been removed, La Guardia appointed Moses to the open commissioner's position, and Ickes gave the city $1.5 million toward the bridge's construction.
Robert Moses became the CEO and Secretary of the TBA in February 1934, after the removal of O'Leary from the Board;
Moses was additionally appointed Chairman in November 1936, following Burkan's death the previous June.
Moses leveraged his leadership of the Triborough Bridge Authority, as well as the state and city positions he also held, to expedite the Triborough project. The Triborough Bridge opened on July 11, 1936.
The TBA subsequently constructed a second bridge, the
Bronx–Whitestone Bridge
The Bronx–Whitestone Bridge (colloquially referred to as the Whitestone Bridge or simply the Whitestone) is a suspension bridge in New York City, carrying six lanes of Interstate 678 over the East River. The bridge connects Throggs Neck and ...
, between the Bronx and Queens. Construction started in 1937 and the bridge opened on April 29, 1939, in time for the
1939 New York World's Fair in Queens. Moses had proposed a third bridge, the Brooklyn-Battery Bridge, on the site of what is now the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. However, the
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, ...
ultimately rejected the Brooklyn-Battery Bridge as an impediment to shipping, since it would obstruct access from the
New York Harbor to the
Brooklyn Navy Yard
The Brooklyn Navy Yard (originally known as the New York Navy Yard) is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend ...
.
Under the chairmanship of Robert Moses, the agency grew in a series of mergers with four other agencies. In January 1940, as part of a deal to build an approach to the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, Moses proposed merging the
New York City Parkway Authority, which operated the Henry Hudson, Marine Parkway, and Cross Bay Bridges. The City Parkway Authority was merged with the TBA on February 9, 1940.
The Parkway Authority had already been merged with the
Henry Hudson Parkway
The Henry Hudson Parkway is a parkway in New York City. The southern terminus is in Manhattan at 72nd Street, where the parkway continues south as the West Side Highway. It is often erroneously referred to as the West Side Highway throughout i ...
Authority, which operated the Henry Hudson Bridge, and with the Marine Parkway Authority, which operated the Marine Parkway Bridge. This gave the TBA complete control of all parkways and toll bridges located entirely in New York City.
The same bill revoked the TBA's right to build a bridge from Brooklyn to the Battery. In 1945, with the pending merger of the Triborough Bridge Authority and the
New York City Tunnel Authority, the former was renamed the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. The authority operated the Queens–Midtown Tunnel and was building the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel. The merger was finalized in 1946. The TBTA completed the construction of the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, which opened to traffic on May 25, 1950.
Growth
Generating millions of dollars in toll revenue annually, the TBTA easily became a powerful city agency as it was capable of funding large capital projects. From the 1940s to the 1960s, the TBTA built the Battery Tunnel Parking Garage,
Jacob Riis Beach Parking Field, the
New York Coliseum
The New York Coliseum was a convention center that stood at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, New York City, from 1956 to 2000. It was designed by architects Leon Levy and Lionel Levy in a modified International Style, and included both a low bui ...
, and the
East Side Airlines Terminal.
Aside from toll crossings, one of the TBTA's most profitable properties was the New York Coliseum, an office building and convention center at
Columbus Circle in Manhattan. The complex cost $35 million to build, of which $26.5 million came from toll revenues collected by the TBTA. The Coliseum, which became the New York City's major convention center, had a tax agreement with the city wherein the city government would collect a portion of the TBTA's revenue rather than collect taxes on the Coliseum property. Within the first ten years of the Coliseum's opening, the city had collected almost $9.1 million from the TBTA. This special tax arrangement continued until the property was sold in 1998.
The TBTA built two additional bridges in the 1960s. The Throgs Neck Bridge, a project to alleviate traffic on the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, started construction in 1957 and opened on January 11, 1961. The long-planned Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which had been proposed as far back as the 1920s, started construction in 1959 and was opened on November 21, 1964. Because of higher-than-expected traffic on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the TBTA built a second deck on that bridge in 1969.
Merger with MTA
![TBB HQ sunny Feb AM jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/TBB_HQ_sunny_Feb_AM_jeh.jpg)
In January 1966, New York City Mayor
John Lindsay
John Vliet Lindsay (; November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular ...
proposed merging the
New York City Transit Authority
The New York City Transit Authority (also known as NYCTA, the TA, or simply Transit, and branded as MTA New York City Transit) is a New York state public-benefit corporations, public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York (state), New ...
(NYCTA), which operated buses and subways in New York City, with the TBTA to create the
Metropolitan Commuter Transit Authority
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in the ...
(MCTA). While Governor
Nelson Rockefeller offered his "complete support" for Lindsay's proposed unified transit agency, Robert Moses called the proposed merger "absurd" and "grotesque" for its unwieldiness. Lindsay then proposed a bill in the state legislature that would allow the mayor to appoint a majority of the members in the new city-run transportation agency, but this was rejected.
In June 1966, Rockefeller announced his plans to expand the MCTA's scope to create a new regional transit authority to encompass the existing MCTA, as well as the NYCTA and TBTA. Lindsay disagreed, saying that the state and city should have operationally separate transit authorities that worked in tandem. In early 1967, Rockefeller proposed merging the NYCTA and TBTA into the MCTA, as well as creating a $2.5 billion bond issue to fund transportation improvements.
On May 3, 1967, Rockefeller signed a bill that allowed the MCTA to oversee the mass transit policies of New York City-area transit systems and the TBTA by the following March.
Initially, the TBTA was resistant to the MCTA's efforts to acquire it.
Moses was afraid that the enlarged MCTA would "undermine, destroy or tarnish" the integrity of the TBTA, One source of contention was Rockefeller's proposal to use TBTA tolls in order to subsidize the cheap fares of the NYCTA, since Moses strongly opposed any use of TBTA tolls for use by outside agencies. Moses agreed to merge the TBTA into the MCTA in March 1967, and he even campaigned in favor of the transit bond issue.
In February 1968, the TBTA's bondholders finally acquiesced to the MCTA's merger proposal.
The TBTA archives, including models of projects built and unbuilt, were transferred to the MTA Bridges and Tunnels Special Archive, at
2 Broadway
2 Broadway is an office building at the south end of Broadway, near Bowling Green Park, in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The 32-story building, designed by Emery Roth & Sons and constructed from 1958 to 1959, contains ...
.
On March 1, 1968, the MCTA dropped the word "Commuter" from its name and became the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...
(MTA). The MTA took over the operations of the other New York City-area transit systems as well as the TBTA.
Moses was relieved from his job as chairman of the TBTA, although he was retained as a consultant.
Moses stated that TBTA construction projects would reduce the MTA's budget surplus through 1970. Surplus revenue, formerly used for new automobile projects, was then used to support
public transportation
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
.
Since the merger, more than $10billion has been contributed by the TBTA to subsidize mass transit fares and capital improvements for the
New York City Transit
The New York City Transit Authority (also known as NYCTA, the TA, or simply Transit, and branded as MTA New York City Transit) is a public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York that operates public transportation in New York City. P ...
,
Long Island Rail Road, and
Metro-North Railroad. The MTA Bridges and Tunnels trading name was adopted in 1994. The name Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority is still the legal name of the Authority.
Law enforcement
![TBTA Police Ford Taurus Police Interceptor No](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/TBTA_Police_Ford_Taurus_Police_Interceptor_No.509_-2.jpg)
The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority employs fewer than 300 ''Bridge and Tunnel officers'' (BTOs), The last civil service exam for MTA Bridge and Tunnel Officer (list # 6091) was back in 2007.
TBTA Officers perform various tasks concerning vehicular traffic, assisting stranded motorists, performing selected security duties at the nine intra-city crossings, as well as other miscellaneous duties.
TBTA officers
TBTA Officers are NYS Peace Officers with limited authority under Article 2, §2.10, sub 20 of New York State Criminal Procedure Law.
Officers killed in duty
Bridge and Tunnel Officer Thomas K. Choi was struck by a vehicle on the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge ( ) is a suspension bridge connecting the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. It spans the Narrows, a body of water linking the relatively enclosed New York Harbor with Lower New York Bay and t ...
on October 20, 2013. He suffered severe head injuries and was left in a coma. He died one year later. Choi had served with the TBTA for 11 years.
Tolls
MTA Bridges and Tunnels collects the vast majority of its tolls through
E-ZPass, an
electronic toll collection system.
E-ZPass was introduced at MTA Bridges and Tunnels crossings between 1995 and 1997.
Open-road tolling
In October 2016, Governor
Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cu ...
announced that tollbooths would be removed at all bridges to speed up traffic.
Since September 30, 2017, all MTA Bridges & Tunnels facilities have collected tolls through
open-road cashless tolling. Tollbooths previously in place have been dismantled, and drivers will no longer be able to pay cash at the crossings. Instead, cameras mounted onto new overhead gantries manufactured by
TransCore
Roper Technologies, Inc. (formerly Roper Industries, Inc.) is an American diversified industrial company that produces engineered products for global niche markets. The company is headquartered in Sarasota, Florida.
Roper provides a wide range ...
will collect the tolls. While some are located where toll booths were previously located, others are located at the opposite ends of the facilities. A vehicle without E-ZPass has a picture taken of its license plate and a bill for the toll is mailed to its owner. For E-ZPass users, sensors detect their transponders wirelessly.
Automatic number-plate recognition
Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR; see also other names below) is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing closed-circuit tel ...
(ALPR) analysis is used to decode the image of the plate into alphanumeric data and the jurisdiction of issue. , the MTA B&T's ALPR system was unable to read temporary paper license plates.
Additionally, the system is subject to significant fraud from motorists who obstruct clear views of their license plates. Drivers caught with such plates risk a ticket for an obstructed, missing or unreadable license plate under Section 402 of New York Vehicle and Traffic Law, though these drivers have not been subject to criminal enforcement.
Governor Cuomo's 2020 proposed Executive Budget included an amendment to specify the use of a modified license plate to avoid tolls as misdemeanor theft-of-service, but the proposal was not included in the final bill.
The MTA has released no data detailing its losses to modified or obstructed license plates, even though the prevalence of such license plates may result in substantial revenue losses. However, it was theoretically possible for the MTA to have a toll collection rate of over 100 percent because the $50 and $100 fines for late toll payments have been added to the sum of tolls collected, but not added to the sum of tolls incurred by drivers. This may obscure both sources of toll revenue and causes of toll revenue loss for the MTA.
From December 2018 through November 2019, the MTA successfully collected 97.1 percent of all tolls incurred by drivers, with the lowest rate being 94.8 percent at the Cross Bay Bridge.
The preponderance of obstructed or modified license plates in New York City may suggest substantial revenue losses due to that form of fraud.
An audit performed by the New York State Comptroller in 2017 criticized the MTA for losses due to issues with reading, and obstruction of, license plates. The MTA's response characterized this as part of "leakage" that is "inherent in the process for any Cashless Tolling environment."
References
External links
*
TBTA Copyright page"History and Projection of Traffic, Roll Revenues, and Expenses and Review of Physical Conditions of the Facilities of Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority"
{{authority control
Public benefit corporations in New York (state)
Government agencies established in 1933
Public utilities of the United States