The Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, commonly referred to as the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, Battery Tunnel or Battery Park Tunnel, is a tolled tunnel in New York City that connects Red Hook in Brooklyn with the Battery in Manhattan. The tunnel consists of twin tubes that each carry two traffic lanes under the mouth of the East River. Although it passes just offshore of Governors Island, the tunnel does not provide vehicular access to the island. With a length of , it is the longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel in North America.
Plans for the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel date back to the 1920s. Official plans to build the tunnel were submitted in 1930 but were initially not carried out. The New York City Tunnel Authority, created in 1936, was tasked with constructing the tunnel. After unsuccessful attempts to secure federal funds, New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses proposed a Brooklyn–Battery Bridge. However, the public opposed the bridge plan, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) rejected the plan several times out of concern that the bridge would impede shipping access to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This prompted city officials to reconsider plans for a tunnel. Construction on the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel started on October 28, 1940, but its completion was delayed due to World War II-related material shortages. The tunnel officially opened on May 25, 1950.
The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel is part of the Interstate Highway System, carrying the entirety of the unsigned Interstate 478 (I-478) since 1971. The tunnel originally carried New York State Route 27A (NY 27A) until 1970. In 2012, the tunnel was officially renamed after former New York Governor Hugh Carey. It is operated by MTA Bridges and Tunnels as one of the MTA's nine tolled crossings.
Description The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel consists of two two-lane tubes, one in each direction. They pass underneath the East River, connecting the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan to the neighborhood of Red Hook in Brooklyn. Although the tubes do not pass directly under Governors Island, that island contains a ventilation building for the tunnel. Vehicles taller than and wider than are prohibited from using the tubes. The tubes stretch from portal to portal, making them the longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnels in North America. At the time of its opening, the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel was the longest underwater vehicular tunnel in the US and the second-longest in the world, behind the Queensway tunnel under the River Mersey in the UK. The portals of each tube contain flood doors weighing and measuring thick, across, and tall.
The tunnel was originally commissioned by the New York City Tunnel Authority, whose chief engineer Ole Singstad created the tunnel's original designs. Halfway through construction, the Tunnel Authority was merged into the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), whose chief engineer Ralph Smillie took over the design process. The "Battery" in the tunnel's name refers to an artillery battery originally located at that site during New York City's earliest days. The tunnel was officially renamed after former Governor Hugh Carey in 2012 since he had lived in Brooklyn.
The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel is owned and operated by the TBTA's successor MTA Bridges and Tunnels, an affiliate agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Until 2017, the agency collected tolls at a tollbooth on the Brooklyn side. The tollbooths have been demolished and replaced with electronic toll gantries on the Manhattan side. , the tunnel is used by 54,076 vehicles on an average weekday.
Associated structures The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel has a total of four ventilation buildings: two in Manhattan, one in Brooklyn, and one on Governors Island. One of the Manhattan ventilation buildings is granite-faced and designed like a monument due to objections to the building's design during the construction process. The Manhattan ventilation structure was depicted as the men in black's headquarters in the Men in Black movie franchise.
The Governors Island ventilation structure, designed by McKim, Mead & White, is an octagonal building located over the midpoint of the tunnel's route, at its lowest point. According to the MTA, the ventilation buildings can completely replace the tunnel's air every 90 seconds. During construction, tunnel engineers touted the ventilation system as being so efficient that the ventilation towers could blow of clean air into the tunnel every hour. The system consists of 53 fans that each had a diameter of .
At the Manhattan end, a 2,126-space parking garage sits above the approach to the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel from the West Side Highway. When the garage opened in 1950, it had 1,050 spaces across seven levels, which were constructed at a cost of $3.5 million (equivalent to $ in ). The parking facility was expanded in 1965–1968 due to its popularity among motorists. The garage was the city's first publicly owned parking lot.
Transportation The tunnel carries 28 express bus routes that connect Manhattan with Brooklyn or Staten Island. The MTA Bus Company operates the BM1, BM2, BM3, and BM4 between Manhattan and Brooklyn. MTA New York City Transit operates the SIM1, SIM1C, SIM2, SIM3, SIM3C, SIM4, SIM4C, SIM4X, SIM5, SIM6, SIM7, SIM9, SIM10, SIM15, SIM31, SIM32, SIM33, SIM33C, SIM34, and SIM35 routes between Manhattan and Staten Island and the X27, X28, X37, and X38 between Manhattan and Brooklyn.
History
Planning A vehicular tunnel under the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn was proposed by the New York Board of Trade and Transportation in 1925 in response to growing truck traffic congestion in Lower Manhattan. The tunnel would have been located between the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge. A tunnel that specifically connected the Battery in Manhattan with Red Hook in Brooklyn, passing underneath the East River and Governors Island south of both the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges, was first proposed by Brooklyn Borough president James J. Byrne in 1926. However, this plan initially did not receive support. Albert Goldman, the New York City Commissioner of Plant and Structures, brought up the plan again in January 1929. In February 1930, the city publicized plans for a six-lane vehicular tunnel from West Street, Manhattan, to Hamilton Avenue, Brooklyn. At the time, ferry service along that path was slow and unreliable. Real-estate speculators believed that land prices along Hamilton Avenue would appreciate as a result of the tunnel's construction and that freight shipments could be delivered to Manhattan faster. The tunnel proposal also entailed widening Hamilton Avenue to and building a large bridge over the Gowanus Canal, south of the proposed tunnel's entrance.
In May 1930, the Terminal Bridge Corporation petitioned the New York City Board of Estimate for permission to build and operate a tunnel under the East River. In November of that year, the Board of Estimate referred the Brooklyn–Manhattan tunnel plan to the New York City Board of Transportation (NYCBOT), who was tasked with surveying the site of the tunnel. At the time, the tunnel would have cost $75 million (equivalent to $ in ), including land acquisition if it included two three-lane tunnels. The tunnels itself would have cost $58 million (equivalent to $ in ) if they were three lanes or $50 million (equivalent to $ in ) if two lanes. The next year, NYCBOT announced that the construction the proposed tunnel was estimated to cost $60 million (equivalent to $ in ), assuming that the tunnels were in diameter with roadways and a clearance. In October 1933, the Board of Estimate approved funding for the tunnel in the city's capital outlay budget for 1934. Two months later, the Board of Estimate approved the Brooklyn–Manhattan tunnel in conjunction with a Staten Island–Brooklyn tunnel under the Narrows. The city was set to ask for $50 million (equivalent to $ in ) in federal funding, but this request was dropped from the final vote.
Mayor Fiorello La Guardia set up a public-works authority in February 1935 so the city could apply for loans from the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). This authority was set to receive $60 million (equivalent to $ in ) in funds for the Brooklyn–Manhattan tunnel. The same month, city officials hired temporary workers to survey sites for the proposed tunnel so that they could create a report for the PWA application. Civic groups and Brooklyn politicians petitioned the city to commence construction immediately so traffic congestion could be reduced. However, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had stipulated that PWA funding only be given to projects that could be finished within a year of the grant being awarded. Since the Brooklyn–Manhattan tunnel project would take longer, it and other New York City highway projects were ineligible for PWA funding.
In January 1936, the New York State Legislature created the New York City Tunnel Authority to oversee the construction of a tunnel between Midtown Manhattan and Queens. The bill also provided the authority with the power to build the Brooklyn–Manhattan tunnel if funds became available. By this time, the construction cost of the Brooklyn–Manhattan tunnel was now projected to be $58 million (equivalent to $ in ). Detailed plans for the tunnel were released in May 1936. The project now consisted of a $60.3-million (equivalent to $ in ) twin-tube bore from Red Hook, Brooklyn, to the Battery, Manhattan, as well as a $2.3-million (equivalent to $ in ) bridge over the Gowanus Canal. The city approved these plans in January 1936. One civic group wanted to plan for future traffic volumes, so it asked the city to conduct further studies of the Brooklyn–Manhattan tunnel project. The tunnel was officially renamed the "Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel" in July 1936. In November of that year, Brooklyn Borough President Raymond Ingersoll and New York City Parks commissioner Robert Moses revealed a plan to connect the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel to Long Island's parkway system via a new Gowanus Parkway and Circumferential Parkway. The planned tunnel was also part of the Regional Plan Association's proposed parkway system around New York City. The next month, the New York City Tunnel Authority advertised for bids to create test bores for the tunnel.
Copies of the plans for the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel were submitted to La Guardia's mayoral administration in February 1937. Two tunnels, one in each direction, would connect to the West Side Highway and the FDR Drive on the Manhattan side and to Hamilton Avenue on the Brooklyn side. In the future, the West Side Elevated Highway would be extended from the north, connecting to the new tunnel. There would be a ventilation tower at the midpoint on Governors Island because the tunnels would stretch between the two portals, and it was thought that the ventilation towers at either end might not pull in sufficient air. The tunnels would be designed to carry a maximum of 15 million vehicles per year, but it was projected that only nine million would use the tunnels during their first year of operation and that the tunnels would not reach their full capacity for another 16 years. The cost of the project had increased to $70 million (equivalent to $ in ), and La Guardia wanted a $30-million (equivalent to $ in ) federal grant so construction could start quickly. A toll of $0.25 per motorist, collected at the Brooklyn end, would help finance the rest of the tunnel and make it profitable. The tunnel would also halve travel time between southern Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan since, at the time, there was no direct route for traffic between these two areas. This, in turn, was expected to expedite cargo deliveries between these areas, thereby reviving Brooklyn's declining cargo industry. The route between Hamilton Avenue and the West Side Highway was determined to be the cheapest route that could be constructed.