Ninja Gaiden (2004 video game)

is an action adventure hack and slash video game developed by Team Ninja and published by Tecmo for the Xbox. It was released in March 2004. Set in the futuristic version of the 21st century, players control Ryu Hayabusa, a master ninja, in his quest to recover a stolen sword and avenge the slaughter of his clan. It was inspired by Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden series, and is set in the same continuity as Team Ninja's Dead or Alive fighting games.

Tecmo developed Ninja Gaiden for five years, targeting a western audience. The game's violence created difficulties obtaining content ratings, and it was censored in some regions. Making use of the Xbox's internet connectivity, Tecmo promoted Ninja Gaiden with a series of international online contests; record-breaking numbers of players competed for places in the live final held at the 2004 Tokyo Game Show.

Ninja Gaiden was critically acclaimed and sold 362,441 copies in North America in the first month of release; however, Japanese sales were poor. Team Ninja released two packs of downloadable content, which were also incorporated into a reworked version, Ninja Gaiden Black (2005). In 2007, Ninja Gaiden was ported to PlayStation 3 as Ninja Gaiden Sigma, with extra content and graphical improvements; this was released on the portable PlayStation Vita as Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus. Ninja Gaiden was followed by Ninja Gaiden II (2008) and Ninja Gaiden 3 (2012).

Ninja Gaiden Sigma was released for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One as part of the Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection on June 10, 2021.

## Gameplay

Ninja Gaiden develops its narrative thread through the actions of its player-controlled protagonist, Ryu Hayabusa. Viewed from a third person over-the-shoulder perspective, in typical action-adventure fashion Ryu starts the game with basic, low-level abilities and weapons that can be upgraded as he progresses, by discovering or buying items. In keeping with his ninja persona, his character can interact with the game environment to perform acrobatic feats, such as running along and jumping off walls, swinging from pole to pole, or running across water. The game world is made up of several distinct regions, most of which are connected via the city of Tairon, which functions as a hub. Access to these regions are obtained by fighting enemies, finding keys, or solving puzzles, inspired by the mechanics of The Legend of Zelda video games. Dragon busts scattered throughout the regions provide the means to save player progress, permitting gameplay to be resumed at a later time.

Ryu's movements are directed using the console gamepad. The game's control system, which comprises the left thumbstick, two attack buttons, and a block button, was described as fluid and responsive, and Ninja Gaiden was regarded as having one of the deeper combat engines among Xbox games at the time, comparing well to the action-adventures God of War and Devil May Cry. Eric Williams, the designer of the God of War combat engine, explained that Ninja Gaiden prohibits players from stopping or changing attacks in mid-stroke. In contrast, God of War allows players to do so, and Devil May Cry grants this freedom to certain attacks. Williams said that, compared to those two games, the combat system in Ninja Gaiden was harder to master; however, it lets players fight their computer controlled foes on equal terms.

Ninja Gaiden features a large selection of weapons for Ryu to wield, each with advantages and disadvantages that affect the way the player approaches combat. These include one-handed swords, such as the Dragon Sword and Kitetsu, which grant quick attacks, and a move called the "Flying Swallow", which allows Ryu to leap and slash through enemies. In addition these light weapons allow Ryu to smash foes into the ground and perform his signature Izuna Drop—a spinning piledriver. Heavy weapons, such as the Dabilahro and the Unlabored Flawlessness, are slow but cause more damage to opponents. With flails and staves, the player can string together long sequences of attacks. To engage distant foes Ryu can throw shuriken and shoot arrows. In addition to using standard melee techniques, Ryu can employ essences—colored globes of energy that are released on the death of enemies and absorbed into Ryu's body when he comes into proximity with them. Essences have an important role in general gameplay, acting to heal Ryu, restore his magic, or increase his cash. However, in combat the player can cause Ryu to deliberately draw in essences, which can then be used to unleash powerful attacks known as Ultimate Techniques that allow Ryu to damage enemies without taking damage himself. These techniques deal heavy damage and make Ryu immune to injury for a short time.

Ninja Gaiden also provides Ryu with magical spells in the form of ninpo spells. When activated by the player, these make Ryu cast fireballs, ice storms, or bolts of lightning. Functioning in a similar manner to the bombs or grenades of shooter action games, these spells allow Ryu to inflict heavy damage on enemies while potentially avoiding damage himself. But, dissatisfied with their programmed visual effects, the game's director Tomonobu Itagaki wanted to deter players from using ninpo. He therefore tweaked the game to award bonus points when players cleared stages without employing magic. For Ryu's defense, the player has two options. First, Ryu can stand still and attempt to block attacks. However, certain enemies can break his guard—either through particularly strong attacks or by grappling him. The second option is to make Ryu dodge, by rolling away from the attack in a maneuver called "reverse wind".

## Plot

Inspired by the 1980s Ninja Gaiden series for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the 2004 version was originally set in a re-imagined game world based on another Team Ninja creation, the Dead or Alive (DOA) series of fighting games. However, interviews with Tomonobu Itagaki indicate that the Xbox games are prequels to the NES series and that both possibly share a single continuity.

Ninja Gaiden is set in the game world of the Dead or Alive series. Located mainly in Japan and the fictional Western Asian nation of the Vigoor Empire, the game draws on Heian period structures for its Japanese locales—a ninja fortress and village set in the mountains. In contrast the Vigoor Empire, with its capital city of Tairon, is a blend of architectural types from around the world. European-style buildings display Arabic lettering, and the monastery in Tairon exhibits Gothic influences with a vaulted hall, pointed arches, and large stained glass windows. A hidden underground level features statues with the heads of cats, walls covered with carvings, hieroglyphics, Aztec pyramid and a labyrinth. This mix of styles was the result of Itagaki's refusal to constrain the game's creative process.

### Characters

Ryu Hayabusa, the "super ninja", is the protagonist of Ninja Gaiden, and the primary player-controllable character in the game. Itagaki believed that creating extra player characters might distract his team from focusing on Ryu's development, despite this, Rachel is a playable character in the Sigma version of the game. Ryu has a long history with Tecmo; he was the star of the 1990s Ninja Gaiden series and has been part of the DOA roster since 1996. His roles in these games played a part in his popularity among fans and the video game industry. Ninja Gaiden provides a backstory to Ryu's appearance and character as seen in the Dead or Alive series, being set two years before the first DOA game.

Rachel is the leading female character, and tragic heroine of the game. She and her twin sister, Alma, are afflicted with a blood curse that turns humans into fiends. Believing that there is no cure for their condition, Rachel seeks to kill Alma to redeem her sister's soul. The relationship between the sisters and the Greater Fiend Doku, who cursed them, serves as a plot device to drive the game forward, with Rachel occasionally needing to be rescued by Ryu. Although not a player-controlled character in Ninja Gaiden, in a few sections of the Ninja Gaiden Sigma remake she is controllable. Two other characters assist the player in the game. Ayane, a young female ninja and one of the DOA regular cast members, acts as a guide throughout Ninja Gaiden by supplying advice and objectives to the player. Muramasa, a bladesmith, has shops scattered throughout the game world where players can purchase useful items and upgrades for Ryu's weapons. Muramasa also gives quests and relates back-stories and other crucial information; for example, he tells Ryu how he can obtain the item required to upgrade his Dragon Sword to its full potential. Players have the option to customize the appearance of player characters, with selectable costumes for Ryu and hairstyles for Rachel.

Most of the enemies are fiends—humans changed into monsters by their blood curse. Three Greater Fiends lead their lesser brethren against Ryu, playing major roles in the game's plot: Alma, Rachel's sister, whose story forms a significant part of the game; Doku, Ryu's main antagonist, whose raid on Hayabusa village and theft of the Dark Dragon Blade comprise the main plot thread; and Marbus, lord of the fiend underworld who is responsible for the final set of challenges Ryu faces in the realm of the fiends before encountering the Vigoor Emperor.

### Story

Ninja Gaiden'''s story spans 16 chapters, each beginning and ending with a cutscene. At the start of the game, the player takes control of Ryu as he infiltrates the Shadow clan fortress. Ryu is there to visit his uncle, the clan leader Murai. During their chat, Ayane delivers news of a raid on the Hayabusa village. Fighting his way back to his village, Ryu encounters Doku, who has killed the Hayabusa shrine maiden Kureha and has taken the Dark Dragon Blade. Ryu is cut down by Doku with the stolen Blade, but he is brought back to life as a "soldier of revenge" by a falcon, the spiritual animal of the Hayabusa clan.

Seeking vengeance for Kureha's death, Ryu learns from Murai that the raiders were from Vigoor, so he stows away on an airship bound for the empire. Fighting his way through the streets of its capital city, Tairon, Ryu faces several bosses including the three Greater Fiends. He defeats Alma in a battle that wrecks the city but leaves her to Rachel's mercy. Conversely, Rachel cannot bring herself to kill her sister, and instead is taken by Doku, who prepares to sacrifice her in a ritual to enhance Alma's power. With Alma's help Ryu rescues Rachel and destroys Doku's spirit, but with his dying breath Doku casts the blood curse on Ryu. The only way for Ryu to lift the curse is to kill the emperor, so he storms the palace, defeating Marbus who bars his way to the emperor's personal realm. Two successive boss fights must be completed to destroy the emperor and reclaim the Dark Dragon Blade—once this is accomplished his realm starts to destruct. Ryu must then be maneuvered up a series of ledges to escape, but in the process, he loses his grip on the Dark Dragon Blade.

The fallen Blade lands at the feet of a figure, the Dark Disciple, who has been shadowing Ryu throughout the game. Taking the Blade, the Disciple reveals himself to be the clan leader Murai. He admits that the raid on Hayabusa village was part of his plan to restore the Blade's evil power, using souls harvested by Ryu. Drawing on the Blade, Murai transforms himself, setting the stage for the final boss fight. Ryu defeats Murai and shatters the Blade with the True Dragon Sword. Victorious, Ryu turns himself into a falcon and flies to the Hayabusa village. In the game's final scene, he places the Dragon Eye, used to enhance his sword, on Kureha's tombstone and disappears into the night. The story of Ninja Gaiden is continued in the sequels Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, Ninja Gaiden II and Ninja Gaiden 3.

## Development

In 1999, Team Ninja started work on the "Next-Generation Ninja Gaiden Project". The first stage of development was to create the game on the Sega NAOMI arcade system board. They then planned to move the project to the Dreamcast console for further development and release, but this was abandoned when Sega announced the end of Dreamcast product line in 2001. At this point, Tecmo decided to release Ninja Gaiden as a launch game for the Sony PlayStation 2 in the United States. Itagaki, however, had other plans; the Team Ninja Leader was impressed with the software development kits for the Xbox and pushed for his team to develop for the Microsoft console. The company kept silent on this change in direction, and surprised both the games industry and fans when they announced at E3 2002 that Ninja Gaiden would be released exclusively on the Xbox gaming console. Most fans who voted on Tecmo's poll wanted the game on the Nintendo GameCube.

Ninja Gaiden was Team Ninja's first action game. Its initial concept had nothing in common with the original Ninja Gaiden series that was released for the NES. However, for retail reasons Tecmo wanted to retain a link with the previous games, which had many adherents in the West, so Itagaki was asked to rethink his ideas to target the foreign market. Analyzing the earlier games, he concluded that their violence appealed to players, and included gory content, such as beheadings, in the Xbox game to retain that spirit. He also aimed to make his new game hard but alluring; it would challenge players on their reflexes rather than on their memories of layouts and timings. His team made a point of designing smoothly-flowing gameplay with high-quality animations that reacted quickly to the player's input. Itagaki paid homage to the earlier Ninja Gaiden series by including updated versions of foes and special attacks. Team Ninja based their 3D computer models, from the pistols of the henchman upwards, on real world material. Character models were taken from studies of human anatomy, and the team hired martial artists in order to digitally capture their movement. Rather than import the motion captures directly into the game, however, the animators used them as templates to give a sense of realism to the game characters' exaggerated movements. Itagaki found it more interesting to design nonhuman creatures than human enemies.

## Release

In 2004, Tecmo released a demo disc of Ninja Gaiden in Japan, bundled with the February 26 issue of Famitsu Xbox magazine. The demo let players try the first chapter of the game on two difficulty settings with a few fully upgraded weapons and ninpos. On March 2, 2004, a year later than originally planned, Tecmo released Ninja Gaiden in the United States.

### Regional censorship

As released, Ninja Gaiden contained bloody acts of violence, decapitations and grotesque monsters. The North American games rating body, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), rated it as a "Mature" game, which prohibits sale to anyone under the age of 17 in several states. The depiction of beheadings, though, attracts stricter ratings in other parts of the world. In Germany, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) deemed these excessive, and refused to rate the game at all. Since this had the potential to place Ninja Gaiden in Germany's "List of Media Harmful to Young People", which would have meant that shops could neither advertise the game nor sell it unless by request to customers of 18 years or older, Tecmo censored the European PAL version to obtain a USK rating. A year later, Tecmo managed to obtain a USK 18+ rating for the uncensored release of Ninja Gaiden Black.

Japan's Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO) rated Ninja Gaiden and Black, on their release, as 18+ games. At the time, CERO ratings acted as guidelines for consumers. However, on March 1, 2006, the Japanese rating system changed. A scale from A to D was introduced, with an additional Z rating for games with large amounts of gore, violence and crime. The Z rating is legally enforced, it being illegal to sell such games to anyone under the age of 18. As a result, Tecmo removed the human beheadings in Sigma to obtain a D rating for the East Asian market. However, CERO reclassified the two previous games as D, despite them also depicting human decapitations.

### Post-release

Team Ninja kept working on the Ninja Gaiden project after its release, with the aim of pushing the action genre and their first such game as far as they could. To this end, they released downloadable expansions, known as Hurricane Packs, free of charge. Itagaki said that since the packs were born out of his team's interest, they did not care to charge players for their efforts. The two packs were available over Xbox Live in the third quarter of 2004.

- Hurricane Pack 1 was a revamped version of Story Mode; Team Ninja tweaked the encounters and artificial intelligence (AI) of Ryu's foes to increase the difficulty of the game. The pack introduced additional foes such as humanoid cats, giants wearing dinosaur skulls, and cyborgs, and Team Ninja made a key change to the camera system by which the on-screen action is displayed; players could now control the camera and change its viewing angle. Another feature of the pack was to enhance the combat engine; the new "Intercept" skill let players counter any enemy attack with the proper timing.
- Hurricane Pack 2 kept the enhancements of the first but took place in an alternative world comprising only two regions, where players have to fight through several encounters to rescue Rachel from two new bosses (Nicchae and Ishtaros). This expansion introduced fiends who wield giant swords and cast fireballs.

Team Ninja later compiled both expansion packs, and added new features, to create Ninja Gaiden Black. This game, which Itagaki viewed as the final version of Ninja Gaiden, went on sale on September 20, 2005. A few years later, Team Ninja upgraded the graphics of the game and ported it to the (PS3). This version was released as Ninja Gaiden Sigma on June 14, 2007. Black became an Xbox Original game on February 11, 2008.

### Online competition

The Master Ninja Tournaments were a series of three online contests held by Microsoft and Tecmo in 2004. They took place over Xbox Live, and were open to participants in Europe, Japan, and North America. Winner selection was based on the scores achieved through playing Ninja Gaiden or its Hurricane Packs. Players had 14 to 24 days to complete the required games and submit their scores to an online scoreboard.

The first two tournaments formed regional qualification stages for a live Ninja Gaiden Master Tournament World Championship, held on September 25 at the TGS 2004. Competition for places was intense, with both tournaments breaking records for online participation in Xbox Live events. Six of the highest scoring players from Europe and North America won bokkens bearing Itagaki's signature, and five regional winners were selected to proceed to the final. Here, the finalists simultaneously played a custom game drawn from Hurricane Pack 2 while commentators called out the action. They had 15 minutes to complete the game and post the highest score; the winner emerged only in the last 20 seconds, when Yasunori Otsuka cleared the game and outscored his rivals. At the award ceremony, the finalists received their prize plaques from Itagaki.

The tournaments were not without controversy. Players complained about Microsoft's tardiness in posting the official rules for the first playoff, and it was believed that the top posted score was not achievable by fair means. Officials, however, stated that the score was possible, and allowed the results to stand. In the second playoff, Microsoft initially named the runner up as the North American finalist, after disqualifying the winner for no publicly stated reason, but eventually had to send the second runner up to Tokyo when the first was unable to produce a passport in time.

Master Ninja Tournament 3 started on September 27 and lasted 26 days. Rankings were decided by scores obtained while playing Hurricane Pack 2, and the prizes were Tecmo apparel and Team Ninja games. This marked the end of official tournaments for Ninja Gaiden, although Microsoft have retained the ranking boards for players to upload their scores.

### Merchandise

Tecmo has built up a line of merchandise around the Ninja Gaiden name. Its online shop carries apparel and accessories such as caps, wristbands, T-shirts, key holders, and mugs. Most of the merchandise is based on that associated with the various Ninja Gaiden game launches or given as prizes in the Master Ninja Tournaments. Tecmo also published the original soundtrack of the game under their record label Wake Up on March 20, 2004. Kotobukiya, a figurine maker, includes 1/6 scale plastic figurines of Ninja Gaiden characters in their range of products. As of 2007, they have produced figures of Ryu, Ayane, Kureha and Rachel.

## Other versions

Tecmo published two additional versions of Ninja Gaiden: Ninja Gaiden Black for Xbox and Ninja Gaiden Sigma for PlayStation 3. Essentially the same game as the original, they tell the same story of Ryu and the Dark Dragon Blade but include additional content and updated game mechanics. Although Itagaki deemed Black to be the final version of Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo subsequently ported the game to the PlayStation 3 as Sigma.

In addition to the narrative Story Mode, Black and Sigma introduced a gameplay variation called Mission Mode. Focused on action rather than character development, this provides combat-based missions set mainly in small areas, where the player's goal is to "destroy all enemies". In both Story and Mission modes, game scoring is based on the player's speed in clearing encounters, the number of kills achieved, the number of unused ninpo spells remaining at the end, and the amount of cash collected. Players can compare their scores on online ranking boards.

### Ninja Gaiden Black

Tecmo announced at E3 2005 that Team Ninja was working on Ninja Gaiden Black, and later exhibited a working version of the game at the TGS 2005. Black is a reworked compilation of the original Ninja Gaiden and the two Hurricane Packs. The game features new foes, such as exploding bats and doppelgänger fiends who can imitate Ryu. It contains more costumes than the original, and swaps Ninja Gaiden's unlockable NES games for an arcade version.

One key feature of this version is its two new difficulty settings—the easy Ninja Dog and the very hard Master Ninja. Itagaki added Ninja Dog after receiving complaints of Ninja Gaiden being too hard in its default incarnation, although he believed that, with persistence, any player was capable of completing the game. Hence he ensured that those players selecting Ninja Dog would be subjected to gentle mockery by the game—players on this difficulty setting receive colored ribbons as accessories, and Ayane treats Ryu as an inferior. In compensation, Itagaki made the other difficulty settings harder than in Ninja Gaiden. Another feature of Black is its Mission Mode, which comprises 50 combat missions, one of which is adapted from the custom game designed for the Ninja Gaiden Master Tournament World Championship final. The last five missions are based on those in Hurricane Pack 2 and form a linked series known as "Eternal Legend". While most of the improvements made in the Hurricane Packs carried forward through this game, including the camera system tweaks and new boss battles, the Intercept maneuver, introduced in Hurricane Pack 1, was not included in Black, adding to its increased challenge.

Ninja Gaiden Black was also available through Xbox's Game Pass for Xbox One S and Xbox One X, but was removed in September 2019. Ninja Gaiden Black is also enhanced for the Xbox One X console, which improves the game's resolution to 4K UHD-levels.

### Ninja Gaiden Sigma

In 2006, Tecmo and Sony announced the development of Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the PlayStation 3. Eidos obtained the European publishing rights for this game. Itagaki had no direct role in Sigma and judged it a flawed game, although he acknowledged that Sigma gave PlayStation owners a taste of Ninja Gaiden.

The gameplay for Sigma is very similar to the original version, albeit with some modifications made to the game. Like the original version, the player's movements and combat system are directed using the console gamepad, which comprises the left thumbstick, two attack buttons, and a block button. The game features a large selection of weapons for Ryu to wield each with advantages and disadvantages that affect the way the player approaches combat. A new addition to Ryu's arsenal is a pair of dual-wield swords, Dragon's Claw and Tiger's Fang. It also provides Ryu with magical spells in the form of ninpo, which allows him to inflict heavy damage on enemies while potentially avoiding damage himself. By shaking the Sixaxis controller, players are able to increase the power of their ninpo spells. Rachel, a non-playable character in the 2004 game, became playable in three new chapters, featuring the new bosses, Gamov and Alterator. Some of the design elements of the old levels was also changed and several new enemy types were introduced.

In addition to the narrative Story Mode, Sigma included a gameplay variation called Mission Mode. Focused on action rather than character development, this provides combat-based missions set mainly in small areas. In both Story and Mission modes, game scoring is based on the player's speed in clearing encounters, the number of kills achieved, the number of unused ninpos remaining at the end, and the amount of cash collected. Players can compare their scores on online ranking boards. In addition, players have the option to customize the appearance of player characters, with selectable costumes for Ryu and hairstyles for Rachel.

The more powerful hardware of the PlayStation 3 gave Team Ninja the opportunity to overhaul the game graphics to use larger and more detailed textures. Changes were made to the game world, with a few new areas and several additional save points and shops, and alterations to the game engine let players shoot arrows in mid-air, fight on water surfaces, and play as Rachel in some chapters and missions.

In July 2007, Tecmo released a demo and a new game mode, Survival Mode, for Sigma over the PlayStation Network. The demo limits players to the first chapter of the game, but lets them play as Rachel in a separate mission. Survival Mode comprises missions in which players keep fighting until they have either killed all their opponents, or their character has been defeated.

### Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus

Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus is a port of Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the PlayStation Vita released in North America and Europe on February 22, 2012. Like Ninja Gaiden Black's "Ninja Dog" mode, Sigma Plus features an easier difficulty called "Hero" mode, making it more accessible to casual gamers. It also takes advantage of the additional features that the Vita offers, including gyroscopic first-person aiming (by tilting the PlayStation Vita, the player can adjust the camera angle in first-person viewing modes), back touchpad controls (tapping symbols using the rear touchpad will allow Ryu to boost the power of his Ninpo), touch screen controls (players can go into first-person mode by tapping the touch screen). In addition, Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus offers new sets of accessories that Ryu and Rachel can equip.

## Reception

Ninja Gaiden was released to critical acclaim. Greg Kasavin of GameSpot called it "one of the best most challenging action adventure games ever made", and his publication named it the best Xbox game of February 2004. IGN's Erik Brudvig said that it "sets a new standard for third-person action games in terms of length, depth, speed, and gore", while Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) called it "an unmissable instant classic", and declared that "no Xbox should go without [Ninja] Gaiden." Critics also regarded it to be one of the most difficult games released prior to 2007. The game received a runner-up position in GameSpot's 2004 "Best Action Adventure Game" category across all platforms.

Its enhanced version, Ninja Gaiden Black, also impressed reviewers. GameSpot noted that it had the best visual and audio presentation on the Xbox and praised its new Mission Mode for "[distilling] the game down to its purest essentials." IGN called its release "a rare and welcome day", which brought their "excitement levels back to the first time [they] played the game."

From a technical point of view, critics regarded Ninja Gaiden and Black as the best of the available Xbox software at the time; the console hardware had been pushed to its limits without showing significant drops in performance. Game Spot's Kasavin was impressed with their "first-rate presentation" and said that no other games at that time came close in visuals and audio. According to IGN, the games could "make [them] momentarily forget about the next generation of consoles". Both Ninja Gaiden and Black were top-sellers, which led to them being compatible with the Xbox 360 for all regions on the new platform's release. Ninja Gaiden attracted criticism for the way on-screen action is framed by the game's camera. The default camera system centers the action on Ryu and his surroundings, but reviewers were frustrated by occasions when the camera locked on to part of the scenery, thus losing track of Ryu. Tecmo attempted to address this with the introduction of manual camera controls in the Hurricane Packs, and most critics judged that either the camera frame was usually acceptable, or that Ninja Gaiden was a good enough game that its flaws could be overlooked.

Consumers purchased 1.5 million copies of Ninja Gaiden and Black by August 2007, with the bulk of these sales going to North America and Europe. According to the NPD Group, in its first month Ninja Gaiden sold 362,441 copies in the United States. By August 2006, Ninja Gaiden had sold 550,000 copies and earned \$27 million in that country. Between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the 100th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube consoles in the United States. Combined sales of Ninja Gaiden and Black reached 800,000 units in the United States by August 2006. These sales figures reflect Tecmo's decision to target the non-Japanese market. Japanese gamers were not particularly excited—according to Itagaki, only 60,000 copies of Ninja Gaiden were sold in Japan in the four months following its release. The critical and commercial success of Ninja Gaiden have led CNET and GameSpot Asia to induct the game into their halls of fame.

The Ninja Gaiden games gained a reputation throughout the gaming community for their difficulty and attention to detail. Although they appealed to gamers who, like Pro-G's Struan Robertson, wanted a "bloody hard, but also bloody good" challenge, it was feared that casual gamers would find the learning curve daunting. IGN warned that gamers with lesser skills might not "get as much out of this game as others due to [its] incredible difficulty", and Edge commented that "Tecmo's refusal to extend any kind of handhold to less dedicated players is simply a failure of design, not a badge of hardcore honour", and "it's impossible to believe they couldn't have found a way to increase the accessibility of the game without undermining the gloriously intractable nature of the challenges it contains." EGM found the challenge to be "rewarding" as it "motivates you to actually get better at the game." Clive Thompson focused on Ninja Gaiden in his Slate article examining the motivation for playing difficult games. He contends that extreme levels of challenge can be initially very frustrating and may cause a game to be abandoned in disgust. However, where a game also rewards a player's perseverance by teaching the skills required to overcome its challenges, that player will have the motivation to finish the game. Ninja Gaiden, in his opinion, strikes the correct balance between challenge and reward; completion brings "a sort of exhausted exhilaration, like finally reaching the end of War and Peace." In 2012, CraveOnline included it on their list of five "badass ninja games", calling it "the pinnacle of action gaming at the time, holding onto that crown for an entire year until God of War released in 2005" and "a true video game classic, and maybe the best ninja game of all time." That same year, G4tv ranked it as the 83rd top video game of all time, also calling it "the best ninja game ever made and one of the all-around hardest."

Ninja Gaiden Sigma sold 46,307 units in the first week of its release in Japan, making it the third highest selling game during that period. According to the NPD Group, in its first month Sigma sold 63,637 copies in the United States. Next Generation reported that as of April 2008, 470,000 copies of Sigma have been sold in Europe and North America. Tecmo announced that they have sold 500,000 units worldwide.

Like Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden Black, Ninja Gaiden Sigma has received positive reviews, currently holding an average score of 87% at GameRankings and 88/100 at Metacritic, based on 58 and 46 reviews respectively. Critics varied in their views on the technical aspects of Ninja Gaiden Sigma''. Although the gaming site 1UP.com called the updated graphics "a gorgeous reworking of the modern ninja classic," Pro-G said that they were average by next-generation standards and showed occasional "tearing, jagged edges, and mismatched collision between bloodstains and walls."

2004 video game


Holland Tunnel

The Holland Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River that connects Hudson Square and Lower Manhattan in New York City in the east to Jersey City, New Jersey in the west. The tunnel is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and carries Interstate 78. The New Jersey side of the tunnel is the eastern terminus of NJ Route 139. The Holland Tunnel is one of three vehicular crossings between Manhattan and New Jersey; the two others are the Lincoln Tunnel and George Washington Bridge.

Plans for a fixed vehicular crossing over the Hudson River were first devised in 1906. However, disagreements prolonged the planning process until 1919, when it was decided to build a tunnel under the river. Construction of the Holland Tunnel started in 1920, and it opened in 1927. At the time of its opening, it was the longest continuous underwater tunnel for vehicular traffic in the world.

The Holland Tunnel was the world's first mechanically ventilated tunnel. Its ventilation system was designed by Ole Singstad, who oversaw the tunnel's completion. Original names considered for the tunnel included Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel and Canal Street Tunnel, but it was ultimately named the Holland Tunnel in memory of Clifford Milburn Holland, its initial chief engineer who died suddenly in 1924 prior to the tunnel's opening.

## Description

### Tubes

The Holland Tunnel is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It consists of a pair of tubes with 29.5-foot (9.0 m) diameters, running roughly parallel to each other and 15 feet (4.6 m) apart underneath the Hudson River. The exteriors of each tube are composed of a series of cast iron rings, each of which comprises 14 curved steel pieces that are each 6 feet (1.8 m) long. The steel rings are covered by a 19-inch-thick (48 cm) layer of concrete.

Each tube provides a 20-foot (6.1 m) roadway with two lanes and 12 feet 6 inches (3.81 m) of vertical clearance. The north tube is 8,558 feet (2,608 m) between portals, while the south tube is slightly shorter, at 8,371 feet (2,551 m). If each tube's immediate approach roads are included, the north tube is 9,210 feet (2,807 m) long and the south tube 9,275 feet (2,827 m) long. Most vehicles carrying hazmats, trucks with more than three axles, and vehicles towing trailers cannot use the tunnel. There is a width limit of 8 feet (2.4 m) for vehicles entering the tunnel.

Both tubes' underwater sections are 5,410 feet (1,650 m) long and are situated in the silt beneath the river. The lowest point of the roadways is about 93 feet (28.3 m) below mean high water. The lowest point of the tunnel ceiling is about 72 feet (21.9 m) below mean high water. The tubes descend at a maximum grade of 4.06% and ascend at a grade of up to 3.8%. The tubes stretch an additional 1,000 feet (300 m) from the eastern shoreline to the New York portals, and 500 feet (150 m) from the western shoreline to the New Jersey portals.

These sections of the tunnel are more rectangular in shape, since they were built as open cuts that were later covered over. The walls and ceiling are furnished with glazed ceramic tiles, which were originally engineered to minimize staining. The majority of the tiles are white, but there is a two-tile-high band of yellow-orange tiles at the bottom of each tube's walls, as well as two-tile-high band of blue tiles on the top.

The northern tube, which carries westbound traffic, originates at Broome Street in Lower Manhattan between Varick and Hudson Streets. It continues to 14th Street east of Marin Boulevard in Jersey City. The southern tube, designed for eastbound traffic, originates at 12th Street east of Marin Boulevard, and surfaces at the Holland Tunnel Rotary in Manhattan. The entrance and exit ramps to and from each portal are lined with granite and are 30 feet (9.1 m) wide. Although the two tubes' underwater sections are parallel and adjacent to each other, the tubes' portals on either side are located two blocks apart in order to reduce congestion on each side.

The Holland Tunnel's tubes initially contained a road surface made of Belgian blocks and concrete. This was replaced with asphalt in 1955. Each tube contains a catwalk on its left (inner) side, raised 4 feet (1.2 m) above the roadway. Five emergency-exit cross-passages connect the two tubes' inner catwalks. When the Holland Tunnel opened, the catwalk was equipped with police booths and a telephone system, stationed at intervals of 250 feet (76 m).

The volume of traffic going through the Holland Tunnel has remained steady despite tight restrictions on eastbound traffic in response to the September 11 attacks, including a ban on commercial traffic entering New York City put in place after an August 2004 threat. Aside from a sharp decline immediately following the September 11 attacks, the number of vehicles using the Holland Tunnel in either direction daily steadily declined from a peak of 103,020 daily vehicles in 1999 to 89,792 vehicles in 2016. As of 2017, the eastbound direction of the Holland Tunnel was used by 14,871,543 vehicles annually.

The Holland Tunnel was designed by Clifford Milburn Holland, the project's chief engineer, who died in October 1924, before it was completed. He was succeeded by Milton Harvey Freeman, who died less than a year after Holland did. Ole Singstad then oversaw the completion of the tunnel. The tunnel was designated a National Historic Civil and Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 1982 and a National Historic Landmark in 1993.

Emergency services at the Holland Tunnel are provided by the Port Authority's Tunnel and Bridge Agents, who are stationed at the Port Authority's crossings.

#### Ventilation

The Holland Tunnel was the first mechanically ventilated underwater vehicular tunnel in the world. It contains a system of vents that run transverse, or perpendicular, to the tubes. Each side of the Hudson River has two ventilation shaft buildings: one on land, and one in the river approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) from the respective shoreline. All of the ventilation buildings have buff brick facades with steel and reinforced-concrete frames.

The shafts within the river rise 107 feet (33 m) above mean high water. Their supporting piers descend 45 feet (14 m), of which 40 feet (12 m) are underwater and 5 feet (1.5 m) are embedded in the riverbed. The river shafts double as emergency exits by way of shipping piers that connected each ventilation shaft to the shoreline. The New York Land Ventilation Tower, a five-story building with a trapezoidal footprint, is 122 feet (37 m) tall. The New Jersey Land Ventilation Tower is a four-story, 84-foot (26 m) building with a rectangular perimeter.

The four ventilation towers contain a combined 84 fans. Of these, 42 are intake fans with varying capacities from 84,000 to 218,000 cubic feet (2,400 to 6,200 m3) per minute. The other 42 are exhaust fans, which can blow between 87,500 and 227,000 cubic feet (2,480 and 6,430 m3) per minute. At the time of the tunnel's construction, two-thirds of the 84 fans were being used regularly, while the other fans were reserved for emergency use. The fans blow fresh air into ducts, which provide air intake to the tunnel via openings at the tubes' curbside. The ceiling contains slits, which are used to exhaust air. The fans can replace all of the air inside the tunnel every 90 seconds. A forced ventilation system is essential because of the poisonous carbon monoxide component of automobile exhaust, which constituted a far greater percentage of exhaust gases before catalytic converters became prevalent.

### Boyle Plaza

The approach to the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City begins where the lower level of NJ Route 139 and the Newark Bay Extension merge. On May 6, 1936, the section of what became Route 139/I-78 between Jersey Avenue and Marin Boulevard was named in memory of John F. Boyle, the former interstate tunnel commissioner. Despite being part of the Interstate Highway System, I-78 and Route 139 run concurrently along 12th and 14th Street Streets to reach the Holland Tunnel. Westbound traffic uses 14th Street while eastbound traffic uses 12th Street. The plaza was restored and landscaped by the Jersey City government in 1982.

There is a nine-lane toll plaza for eastbound traffic only at the eastern end of 12th Street, just west of the tunnel portal. The original toll plaza had eight lanes; it was renovated in 1953–1954, and the current nine-lane tollbooth was constructed in 1988.

### Holland Tunnel Rotary

Soon after construction of the tunnel, and amid rising vehicular traffic in the area, a railroad freight depot, St. John's Park Terminal, was abandoned and later demolished. The depot was located on the city block bounded by Laight, Varick, Beach, and Hudson Streets. The depot's site was used as a storage yard until the 1960s when it became a circular roadway for traffic exiting the eastbound tube in Manhattan.

The original structure had four exits, but the plaza was renovated in the early 2000s with landscaping by Studio V Architecture and Ives Architecture Studio. A fifth exit was added in 2004.

### Freeman Plaza

Originally used as the toll plazas for New Jersey-bound traffic, the small triangular patches of land at the mouth of the westbound tube entrance are referred to as Freeman Plaza or Freeman Square. The plaza is named after Milton Freeman, the engineer who took over the Holland Tunnel project after the death of Clifford Milburn Holland. The Freeman Plaza received its name just before the tunnel opened in 1927. The toll plaza was removed circa 1971 when the Port Authority stopped collecting tolls for New Jersey-bound drivers, and the square was later fenced off by the Port Authority. The small maintenance buildings for toll collectors were removed around 1982 or 1983. A bust of Holland sits outside the entrance to the westbound tube in Freeman Plaza.

A business improvement district for the area, the Hudson Square Connection, was founded in 2009 with the goal of repurposing the square for pedestrian use. Hudson Square Connection and the Port Authority collaborated to create a five-year, \$27 million master plan for Freeman Plaza. In 2013, Freeman Plaza West was opened to the public. Bounded by Hudson, Broome, and Watts Streets, it features umbrellas, bistro tables and chairs, and tree plantings.

In 2014, Freeman Plaza East and Freeman Plaza North were opened on Varick and Broome Streets, respectively. The plazas contained chaise longues, bistro tables, and umbrellas. In 2016, the Hudson Square Connection added solar powered charging stations to both plazas, and introduced a summer lunchtime music series, called live@lunch. A statue by the artist Isamu Noguchi was also installed within the plaza. To the south of Freeman Plaza, between Varick, Watts, and Canal Streets is One Hudson Square, a New York City designated landmark in 2013.

## History

### Need for vehicular tunnel

Until the first decade of the 20th century, passage across the lower Hudson River was possible only by ferry. The first tunnels to be bored below the Hudson River were for railroad use. The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, now PATH, constructed two pairs of tubes to link the major railroad terminals in New Jersey with Manhattan Island: the Uptown Hudson Tubes, which opened in 1908, and the Downtown Hudson Tubes, which opened in 1909. The Pennsylvania Railroad's twin North River Tunnels, constructed to serve the new Pennsylvania Station, opened in 1910. The construction of these three tunnels proved that tunneling under the Hudson River was feasible. However, although train traffic was allowed to use the tunnel crossings, automotive traffic still had to be transported via ferry.

At the same time, freight traffic in the Port of New York and New Jersey was mostly carried on boats, but traffic had grown to such a point that the boats were at full capacity, and some freight started going to other ports in the United States. To alleviate this, officials proposed building a freight railroad tunnel, but this was blocked by the organized syndicates that held influence over much of the port's freight operations. The public learned of the excessive traffic loads on existing boat routes, as well as the limited capacity of the H&M and North River Tunnels, when the surface of the Hudson River froze in winter 1917, and again when Pennsylvania Railroad workers went on strike in winter 1918. One engineer suggested that three freight railroad tunnels would be cheaper to construct than one bridge.

### Planning

#### Initial plans

In 1906, the New York and New Jersey Interstate Bridge Commission, a consortium of three groups, was formed to consider the need for a crossing across the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey. That year, three railroads asked the commission to consider building a railroad bridge over the river. In 1908, the commission considered building three bridges across the Hudson River at 57th, 110th, and 179th Streets in Manhattan. The reasoning was that bridges would be cheaper than tunnels. These three locations were considered to be the only suitable locations for suspension bridges; other sites were rejected on the grounds of aesthetics, geography, or traffic flows. John Vipond Davies, one of the partners for the consulting firm Jacobs and Davies (which had constructed the Uptown Hudson Tubes), wanted to build a vehicular tunnel between Canal Street, Manhattan, and 13th Street, Jersey City. This proposal would compete with the six-lane suspension bridge at 57th Street. Some plans provided for the construction of both the bridge and the tunnel. The ferries could not accommodate all of the 19,600 vehicles per day, as of 1913, that traveled between New York and New Jersey. The Bridge Commission hosted several meetings to tell truck drivers about the details of both the 57th Street Bridge and Canal Street Tunnel plans.

The United States Department of War brought up concerns about the 57th Street bridge plans: the span would need to be at least 200 feet (61 m) above the mean high water to avoid interfering with shipping. By comparison, the tunnel would be 95 feet (29 m) below mean water level. The Interstate Bridge Commission, which had been renamed the New York State Bridge and Tunnel Commission in April 1913, published a report that same month, stating that the Canal Street tunnel would cost \$11 million while the 57th Street bridge would cost \$42 million. In October 1913, Jacobs and Davies stated that a pair of tunnels, with each tube carrying traffic in one direction, would cost only \$11 million, while a bridge might cost over \$50 million. The low elevation and deep bedrock of Lower Manhattan was more conducive to a tunnel than to a bridge. By the end of that year, the consulting engineers for both the 57th Street Bridge and the Canal Street Tunnel had submitted their plans to the Bridge and Tunnel Commission. New York City merchants mainly advocated for the tunnel plan, while New Jerseyans and New York automobile drivers mostly supported the bridge plan. Meanwhile, the New York State Bridge and Tunnel Commission indicated that it favored the Canal Street tunnel plan. On the other hand, the 57th Street bridge plan remained largely forgotten.

The Public Service Commission of New Jersey published a report in April 1917, stating that the construction of a Hudson River vehicle tunnel from Lower Manhattan to Jersey City was feasible. That June, following this report, Walter Evans Edge, then Governor of New Jersey, convened the Hudson River Bridge and Tunnel Commission of New Jersey, which would work with the New York Bridge and Tunnel Commission to construct the new tunnel. In March 1918, a report was sent to the New York State Legislature, advocating for the construction of the tunnel as soon as possible. That year, six million dollars in funding for the Hudson River Tunnel was proposed in two bills presented to subcommittees of the United States Senate and House of Representatives. The bill was voted down by the Interstate Commerce Committee before it could be presented to the full Senate.

#### Plans approved

The original plans for the Hudson River tunnel were for twin two-lane tubes, with each tube carrying traffic in a single direction. A request for proposals for the tunnel was announced in 1918, and eleven such requests were considered. One of these proposals, authored by engineer George Goethals, was for a bi-level tube. A modification of Jacobs and Davies' 1913 plan, the Goethals proposal specified that each level would carry three lanes of traffic, and that traffic on each level would run in a different direction. Goethals stated that his plan would cost \$12 million and could be completed in three years. Subsequently, John F. O'Rourke offered to build the tunnel for \$11.5 million. Goethals cited the area's freight traffic as one of the reasons for constructing the tube. His proposal would use a 42-foot (13 m) diameter shield to dig the tunnel. This large tunnel size was seen as a potential problem, since there were differences in the air pressure at the top and the bottom of each tunnel, and that air pressure difference increased with a larger tunnel diameter. Five engineers were assigned to examine the feasibility of Goethals's design. In July 1919, President Woodrow Wilson ratified a Congressional joint resolution for a trans-Hudson tunnel, and Clifford Milburn Holland was named the project's chief engineer. Holland stated that, based on the construction methods used for both pair of tubes, including the downtown pair, it should be relatively easy to dig through the mud on the bottom of the Hudson River, and that construction should be completed within two years.

The federal government refused to finance the project, even in part, and so it tell to the states to raise the funds. In June 1919, U.S. Senator and former New Jersey governor Edge presented another iteration of the Hudson River Tunnel bill to the U.S. Senate, where it was approved. The New York and New Jersey governments signed a contract in September 1919, in which the states agreed to build, operate, and maintain the tunnel in partnership. The contract was signed by the states' respective tunnel commissions in January 1920.

Under Holland's plan, each of the two tubes would have an outside diameter of 29 feet (8.8 m) including exterior linings, and the tubes would contain two-lane roadways with a total width of 20 feet (6.1 m). One lane would be for slower traffic, and the other would be for faster traffic. This contrasted with Goethals's plan, wherein the three roadways would have had a total width of 24.5 feet (7.5 m), only a few feet wider than Holland's two-lane roadways. Additionally, according to Holland, the 42-foot-wide tube would require the excavation of more dirt than both 29-foot tubes combined: two circles with 29-foot diameters would have a combined area of 5,282.2 square feet (490.73 m2), while a circle with a 42-foot diameter would have an area of 5,541.8 square feet (514.85 m2). The more northerly westbound tube would begin at Broome and Varick Streets on the Manhattan side and end at the now-demolished intersection of 14th and Provost Streets on the New Jersey side. The more southerly eastbound tube would begin at the still-intact intersection of 12th and Provost Streets in Jersey City, and end at the south side of Canal Street near Varick Street. By way of comparison, Goethals's plan would have combined the entrance and exit plazas on each side. The Motor Truck Association of America unsuccessfully advocated for three lanes in each tube.

Even though Goethals's method of digging had not been tested, he refused to concede to Holland's proposal, and demanded to see evidence that Holland's proposal would work. The New York and New Jersey Tunnel Commission subsequently rejected Goethals's plan in favor of a twin-tube proposal that Holland had devised, which was valued at around \$28.7 million. When Goethals asked why, the commission responded that Goethals's proposal had never been tested; that it was too expensive; and that the tunnel plans had many engineering weaknesses that could cause the tube to flood. Additionally, while a tube with three lanes in each direction would be able to handle more traffic than a tube with two lanes, projections showed that traffic on the tunnel's approach roads could barely handle the amount of traffic going to and from the two-lane tubes, and that widening the approach roads on each side would cost millions of dollars more. The commission then voted to forbid any further consideration of Goethals's plan. Holland defended his own plan by pointing out that the roadways in Goethals's plan would not only feature narrower road lanes, but also would have ventilation ducts that were too small to ventilate the tube efficiently.

In May 1920, the New Jersey Legislature voted to approve the start of construction, overriding a veto from the New Jersey governor. The same month, the New York governor signed a similar bill that had been passed in the New York legislature. The legislature of New Jersey approved a \$5 million bond issue for the tunnel in December 1920.

### Construction

The first bid for constructing the Hudson River Tunnel, a contract for digging two of the tunnel's eight planned shafts, was advertised in September 1920. A groundbreaking for the Hudson River Tunnel's ventilation shaft, which marked the official start of construction on the tunnel, occurred on October 12, 1920, at Canal and Washington Streets on the Manhattan side. However, further construction of the Hudson River Tunnel was soon held up due to concerns over its ventilation system. There was also a dispute over whether the New York City government should pay for street-widening projects on the New Jersey side. Further delays arose when the New York and New Jersey tunnel commissions could not agree over which agency would award the contract to build the construction and ventilation shafts.

#### Ventilation system

The most significant design aspect of the Holland Tunnel is its ventilation system; it is served by four ventilation towers designed by Norwegian architect Erling Owre. At the time of its construction, underwater tunnels were a well-established part of civil engineering, but no long vehicular tunnels had been built, as all of the existing tunnels under New York City waterways carried only railroads and subways. These tubes did not have as much of a need for ventilation, since the trains that used the tubes were required to be electrically powered, and thus emitted very little pollution. On the other hand, the traffic in the Holland Tunnel consisted mostly of gasoline-driven vehicles, and ventilation was required to evacuate the carbon monoxide emissions, which would otherwise asphyxiate the drivers. There were very few tunnels at that time that were not used by rail traffic; the most notable of these non-rail tunnels, the Blackwall Tunnel and Rotherhithe Tunnel in London, did not need mechanical ventilation. However, a tunnel of the Hudson River Tunnel's length required an efficient method of ventilation, so Chief Engineer Singstad pioneered a system of ventilating the tunnel transversely (perpendicular to the tubes).

In October 1920, General George R. Dyer, the chairman of the New York Tunnel Commission, published a report in which he wrote that Singstad had devised a feasible ventilation system for the Hudson River Tunnel. Working with Yale University, the University of Illinois, and the United States Bureau of Mines, Singstad built a test tunnel in the bureau's experimental mine at Bruceton, Pennsylvania, measuring over 400 feet (122 m) long, where cars were lined up with engines running. Volunteer students were supervised as they breathed the exhaust in order to confirm air flows and tolerable carbon monoxide levels by simulating different traffic conditions, including backups. The University of Illinois, which had hired the only professors of ventilation in the United States, built an experimental 300-foot-long (91 m) ventilation duct at its Urbana campus to test air flows. In October 1921, Singstad concluded that a conventional, longitudinal ventilation system would have to be pressurized to an air flow rate of 27 cubic meters per second (953 cu ft/s) along the tunnel. On the other hand, the tunnel could be adequately ventilated transversely if the compartment carrying the tube's roadway was placed in between two plenums. A lower plenum below the roadway floor could supply fresh air, and an upper plenum above the ceiling could exhaust fumes at regular intervals.

Two thousand tests were performed with the ventilation system prototype. The system was determined to be of sufficiently low cost, relative to the safety benefits, that it was ultimately integrated into the tunnel's design. By the time the tunnel was in service, the average carbon monoxide content in both tunnels was 0.69 parts per 10,000 parts of air. The highest recorded carbon monoxide level in the Holland Tunnel was 1.60 parts per 10,000, well below the permissible maximum of 4 parts per 10,000. The public and the press proclaimed air conditions were better in the tubes than in some streets of New York City; after the tunnel opened, Singstad stated that the carbon monoxide content in the tubes were half of those recorded on the streets.

#### Tunnel boring

The ventilation system and other potential issues had been resolved by December 1921, and officials announced that the tunnel would break ground the following spring. Builders initially considered building a trench at the bottom of the Hudson River and then covering it up, but this was deemed infeasible because of the soft soil that comprised the riverbed, as well as the heavy maritime traffic that used the river. Officials started purchasing the properties in the path of the tunnel's approaches, evicting and compensating the tenants "without delay" so that construction could commence promptly. A bid to construct the tubes was advertised, and three firms responded. On March 29, 1922, the contract to dig the tubes was awarded to the lowest bidder, Booth & Flinn Ltd., for \$19.3 million. The materials that were necessary to furnish the Hudson River Tunnel had already been purchased, so it was decided to start work immediately. Construction on the bores began two days later as workers broke ground for an air compressor to drive the tubes. The ceremony for the air compressor was held at the corner of Canal Street and West Side Highway on the Manhattan side. The workers who were performing the excavations, who were referred to as "sandhogs", were to dig each pair of tubes from either bank of the Hudson River, so that the two sides would eventually connect somewhere underneath the riverbed. The tunnel was to be 9,250 feet (2,820 m) long between portals, and the roadway was to descend to a maximum depth of 93 feet (28 m) below mean high water level.

The start of construction for the tubes from the New Jersey side was delayed because the Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel Commission had not yet acquired some of the land for the project. Although Jersey City officials had insisted that the Tunnel Commission widen 12th and 14th Streets in Jersey City, these officials were involved in a disagreement over sale prices with the Erie Railroad, which owned some of the land that was to be acquired for the street widening. As a result, work on the Hudson River Tunnel was delayed by one year and could not be completed before 1926 at the earliest. Work on the New Jersey side finally started on May 30, 1922, after Jersey City officials continued to refuse to cede public land for the construction of the tunnel's plazas. The Jersey City Chamber of Commerce wrote a letter that denounced this action, since the New Jersey Tunnel Commission's members on the Hudson River Tunnel Commission had not been notified of the groundbreaking until they read about it in the following day's newspapers. In mid-June, a state chancellor made permanent an injunction that banned Jersey City officials from trying to preclude construction on the Hudson River Tunnel. The Hudson River Tunnel Commission ultimately decided that Jersey City would not have its own groundbreaking celebration due to the city's various efforts at blocking the tunnel's construction. However, although Jersey City officials had been primarily accused of delaying construction, officials from both states had wanted the Tunnel Commission to widen the approach streets to the Hudson River Tunnel as part of the construction process.

For the project, six tunnel digging shields were to be delivered. These shields comprised cylinders whose diameters were wider than the tunnel bores, and these cylinders contained steel plates of various thicknesses on the face that was to be driven under the riverbed. Four of the shields would dig the Hudson River Tunnel under the river, while the remaining two shields would dig from the Hudson River west bank to the Jersey City portals. They could dig through rock at a rate of 2.5 feet (0.76 m) per day, or through mud at a daily rate of 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 m). The air compressors would provide an air pressure of 20 to 45 pounds per square inch (140 to 310 kPa). The shovels used to dig the tunnel were provided by the Marion Power Shovel Company, while the six digging shields were built by the Merchants Shipbuilding Corporation. The air compressor was completed in September 1922, and the first shield was fitted into place in the Manhattan side's construction shaft. By this point, the shafts on the New Jersey side were being excavated, and two watertight caissons were being constructed.

The shield started boring in late October of that year after the steel plates that were necessary for the shield's operation had been delivered. The first permanent steel-rings lining the tubes were laid a short time afterward. The caissons were completed and launched into the river in December, and after the caissons were outfitted with the requisite equipment such as airlocks, tugboats dropped the caissons into place in January 1923. Officials projected that at this rate of progress, the tunnel would be finished within 36 months, by late 1926 or early 1927.

Tunnel construction required the sandhogs to spend large amounts of time in the caisson under high pressure of up to 47.5 pounds per square inch (328 kPa), which was thought to be necessary to prevent river water from entering prior to completion of the tubes. The caissons were massive metal boxes with varying dimensions, but each contained 6-foot-thick (1.8 m) walls. Sandhogs entered the tunnel through a series of airlocks, and could only remain inside of the tunnel for a designated time period. On exiting the tunnel, sandhogs had to undergo controlled decompression to avoid decompression sickness or "the bends", a condition in which nitrogen bubbles form in the blood from rapid decompression. The rate of decompression rate for sandhogs working on the Hudson River Tunnel was described as being "so small as to be negligible". Sandhogs underwent such decompressions 756,000 times throughout the course of construction. which resulted in 528 cases of the bends, though none were fatal. The tunnel's pressurization caused other problems, including a pressure blowout in April 1924 that flooded the tube.

Due to the geology of the Hudson River, the shields digging from the New Jersey side were mostly being driven through mud, and so could be driven at a faster rate than the shields from the New York side, which were being dug through large rock formations. When workers tried to dig through the Manhattan shoreline, they had encountered several weeks of delay due to the existence of an as-yet-unrecorded granite bulkhead on the shoreline. In September 1923, after having proceeded about 1,100 feet (340 m) from the Manhattan shoreline, workers encountered a sheet of Manhattan schist under the riverbed, forcing them to slow shield digging operations from 12.5 feet per day (3.8 m/d) to less than 1 foot per day (0.30 m/d). This outcropping was fed from a stream in Manhattan that emptied into the Hudson River. The sandhogs planned to use small explosive charges to dig through the rock shelf without damaging the shield. By December 1923, about 4,400 feet (1,300 m) of each tube's total length had been excavated, and the first of the shields had passed through the underwater shafts that had been sunk during construction. Due to these unexpected issues, the cost estimate for the tunnel was increased from \$28 million to \$42 million in January 1924. By March 1924, all seven of the ventilation shafts had been dug, and three of the four shields that were digging underwater had passed through their respective underwater construction shafts, with the fourth shield nearing its respective shaft.

Workers also performed tests to determine whether they could receive radio transmissions while inside the tunnel. They found that they were able to receive transmissions within much of the Hudson River Tunnel. However, a New Jersey radio station later found that there was a spot in the middle of the tunnel that had no reception.

The cost of the project increased as work progressed. In July 1923, the New York and New Jersey Vehicular Tunnel Commission had revised plans for the entrance and exit plazas on each side to accommodate an increase in traffic along Canal Street on the Manhattan side. The commission had spent \$2.1 million to acquire land. Further redesigns were made in January 1924 due to a change of major components in the tunnel plan, including tunnel diameters and ventilation systems, which had increased the cost by another \$14 million.

#### Nearing completion

The two ends of both tubes were scheduled to be connected to each other at a ceremony on October 29, 1924, in which President Calvin Coolidge would have remotely set off an explosion to connect the tunnel's two sides. However, two days before the ceremony, Holland died of a heart attack at the sanatorium in Battle Creek, Michigan, aged 41. Individuals cited in The New York Times attributed his death to the stress associated with overseeing the tunnel's construction. The ceremony was postponed out of respect for Holland's death.

The tunnel was ultimately holed through on October 29, but it was a nondescript event without any ceremony. On November 12, 1924, the Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel was renamed the Holland Tunnel by the two states' respective tunnel commissions. Holland was succeeded by Milton Harvey Freeman, who died of pneumonia in March 1925, after several months of overseeing the project. After Freeman's death, the position was occupied by Ole Singstad, who oversaw the tunnel's completion.

As part of the tunnel project, one block of Watts Street in Manhattan was widened to accommodate traffic heading toward the westbound tube. Sixth Avenue was also widened and extended between Greenwich Village and Church Street. Ten thousand people were evicted to make way for the Sixth Avenue extension. The north-south Church Street was widened and extended southward to Church Street and Trinity Place; West Side Highway was expanded and supplemented with an elevated highway; and the west-east Vestry and Laight Streets were also widened. On the New Jersey side, the Holland Tunnel was to connect a new highway (formerly the Route 1 Extension; now New Jersey Route 139), which extended westward to Newark. This included a 2,100-foot (640 m) viaduct, rising 80 feet (24 m) from 12th and 14th Streets, at the bottom of the Palisades, to the new highway, at the top of the Palisades. The New Jersey highway approach was opened in stages beginning in 1927, and most of that highway was finished in 1930.

The construction of the tunnel approach roads on the New Jersey side was delayed for months by Erie Railroad, whose Bergen Arches right-of-way ran parallel to and directly south of Route 139, in the right of way of the proposed approach roads. Although the Erie had promised to find another site for its railroad yards, it had refused to respond to the plans that the New Jersey State Highway Commission had sent them. In March 1925, the Highway Commission decided that construction on the approach roads would begin regardless of Erie's response, and so the land would be taken using eminent domain. This led to a legal disagreement between the Erie and the Highway Commission. The Erie maintained that it absolutely needed 30 feet of land along 12th Street, while the Highway Commission stated that the most direct approach to the eastbound Holland Tunnel's 12th Street portal should be made using 12th Street. The commission rejected a suggestion that it should use 13th Street, one block north, because it would cost \$500,000 more and involve two perpendicular turns. In October 1926, one million dollars was allocated to the completion of the Route 139 approach.

The contracts for constructing the Holland Tunnel's ventilation systems were awarded in December 1925. Two months later, the New York-New Jersey Vehicular Tunnel Commission asked for \$3.2 million more in funding. The tunnel was now expected to cost \$46 million, an increase of \$17 million over what was originally budgeted. The Holland Tunnel was nearly complete: in March 1926, Singstad stated that the tunnel was expected to be opened by the following February. By May 1926, the tubes had been almost completely furnished: the polished-white tile walls were in place, as were the bright lighting systems and the Belgian-block-and-concrete road surfaces. The north tube's tiles were sourced locally by the Sonzogni Brothers of Union City, New Jersey, while the south tube's tiles were sourced in equal amounts from Czechoslovakia and Germany. The tiles' surfaces were specially engineered so that they could maintain their coloring even after years of use. The lighting systems used in the Holland Tunnel were designed to allow motorists to adjust to a gradual change in lighting levels just before leaving the tubes.

The ventilation towers were the only major component of the Holland Tunnel that was not completed, but major progress had been made by the end of 1926. Ole Singstad and the two states' tunnel commissions tested the tunnel's ventilation system by releasing gas clouds in one of the tubes in February 1927. Singstad subsequently declared that the ventilation system was well equipped to ventilate the tunnel air. However, the New York Board of Trade and Transportation disagreed, stating that the system would be inadequate if there was a genuine incident within the tunnel. In April 1927, the board had conducted their own tests with two lighted candles, and a cloud of smoke had filled the entire tube before the ventilation system was able to perform a full exhaust. The Chief Surgeon of the U.S. Board of Mines supported Singstad's position that the ventilation system could sufficiently filter the tubes' air. To affirm the ventilation system's efficacy, in November 1927, the New York and New Jersey tunnel commissions burned a car within the tunnel; the ventilation system dissipated the fire within three and a half minutes.

The governors of New York and New Jersey took ceremonial rides through the tunnel in August 1926, meeting at the tunnel's midpoint. The first unofficial drive through the entirety of the Holland Tunnel was undertaken by a group of British businessmen a year later, in August 1927. The next month, a group from the Buffalo and Niagara Frontier Port Authority Survey Commission also visited the tunnel. In October, a delegation of representatives from Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, toured the nearly complete Holland Tunnel to get ideas for the then-proposed Detroit–Windsor Tunnel. A reporter for The New York Times was able to make a test drive through the tunnel, noting that "there is no sudden pressure of wind upon the ear-drums" and that it would reduce the duration of crossing the Hudson River by between 15 and 22 minutes. Three hundred police officers were trained in advance of the Holland Tunnel's opening, and bus companies started receiving franchises to operate buses through the tunnel.

### Opening

The Holland Tunnel was officially opened at 4:55 p.m. EST on November 12, 1927. President Coolidge ceremonially opened the tunnel from his yacht by turning the same key that had opened the Panama Canal in 1915. Time magazine reported that it Coolidge had used "the golden lever of the Presidential telegraphic instrument." It rang a giant brass bell at the tunnel's entrances that triggered American flags on both sides of the tunnel to separate. The tunnel's opening ceremony was broadcast on local radio stations. Approximately 20,000 people walked the entire length of the Holland Tunnel before it was closed to pedestrians at 7 p.m. The Holland Tunnel officially opened to vehicular traffic at 12:01 a.m. on November 13, the next day; over a thousand vehicles had gathered on the New Jersey side, ready to pay a toll. The first car to pay a toll was driven by the daughter of the chairman of New Jersey's Bridge and Tunnel Commission. The widows of chief engineers Holland and Freeman rode in the second vehicle that paid a toll. At the time, the Holland Tunnel was the world's longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel, as well as the world's first tunnel designed specifically for vehicular traffic.

Each passenger car paid a 50-cent toll (worth about \$0.00 in ). Tolls for other vehicular classes ranged from 25 cents for a motorcycle to two dollars for large trucks. Commuter bus routes, which paid a 50-cent-per-vehicle toll, began operating through the tunnel in December 1927. Truckers subsequently objected that these rates were too high, as the Holland Tunnel truck tolls were double the tolls that were charged on the trans-Hudson ferries; by contrast, the tunnel's passenger vehicle, motorcycle, and bus tolls were on par with those charged by the ferries. The toll revenues would be used to pay off the tunnel's cost (which was estimated at \$48 million in 1927 dollars, or equivalent to \$ in ). Within ten years of opening, it was expected that all construction costs would be paid off. Horsedrawn vehicles were banned from the tunnel from the start, since it was believed that horses' slow speeds would cause traffic congestion in the tubes. Pedestrian and bicycle traffic was also banned. A few months before the tunnel's opening, there were suggestions that pedestrians would be allowed to cross the tunnel if they paid a toll described as "not encouraging," but the idea was never seriously considered.

The Holland Tunnel was expected to relieve congestion on the vehicular ferries across the Hudson River, since the capacity of the tunnel was similar to that of the vehicular ferries. Upon opening, it had been estimated that up to 15 million vehicles per year could use the tunnel in both directions, equating to a maximum daily capacity of 46,000 vehicles or an hourly capacity of 3,800 vehicles. Singstad stated that increasing freight traffic across the river would result in a corresponding increase in truck traffic, which would then cause the tunnel to reach its maximum traffic capacity shortly after its opening.

The Holland Tunnel was immediately popular. On November 13, a Sunday, 52,285 vehicles passed through the tunnel on its first day of operation, more than its projected maximum capacity. The lines to enter the tunnel stretched for miles on either end, although many of these vehicles were passenger cars who were making a round trip to tour the tunnel. On November 14, the Holland Tunnel's first weekday of operation, the tunnel carried 17,726 cars. Traffic counts in the Holland Tunnel remained relatively steady until the following weekend, when over 40,000 vehicles went through the tunnel. The first holiday rush period for the Holland Tunnel occurred two weeks after the tunnel's opening, when around 30,000 motorists used the tunnel over the Thanksgiving holiday; there were no major traffic disruptions. A half-million vehicles had passed through the Holland Tunnel within three weeks, and a million had used the tubes by New Year's Day. Within the tunnel's first year, 8.5 million vehicles had used it, and the toll revenue had grossed \$4.7 million in profit; it was estimated that at this rate, the Holland Tunnel's construction costs might be paid off sooner than expected.

Trans-Hudson ferries reported that their traffic counts had been halved in the two weeks since the tunnel opened, and at least one ferry route reduced service within one month of the opening. Another ferry cut its toll rates to half those of the Holland Tunnel in an effort to recover business. The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (later PATH), which operated rapid transit services across the Hudson River through its Uptown and Downtown Hudson Tubes, also saw a decline in ridership after the Holland Tunnel opened. Even after the start of the Great Depression in 1929, when most transit in New York City saw declines, the Holland Tunnel saw an increase in traffic, as did ferry lines.

### Early years

In 1930, there was a disagreement between the Hudson River Tunnel Commission and the Port of New York Authority over who would construct the Lincoln Tunnel. The tunnel was to be located further north along the Hudson River, connecting nearby Weehawken to Manhattan. The two agencies merged that April, and the expanded Port Authority of New York and New Jersey took over operations of the Holland Tunnel, a role that it maintains to this day. Real property title was not passed however. A second vehicular link between New Jersey and Manhattan, the George Washington Bridge, opened in October 1931. The Lincoln Tunnel, the third and final vehicular connection between New Jersey and Manhattan, first opened in December 1937. Within the first 25 years of the Holland Tunnel's opening, it had carried 330 million vehicles in total, but a significant portion of Holland Tunnel traffic was diverted to the Lincoln Tunnel and George Washington Bridge after the opening of the latter two crossings.

In 1945, the Port Authority approved the extension of a tunnel approach on the New Jersey side. A new viaduct for westbound traffic would connect the intersection of 14th Street and Jersey Avenue, outside the Holland Tunnel's exit portal, to Hoboken Avenue and NJ Route 139, on top of The Palisades. This would supplement an existing bidirectional viaduct, which connected Hoboken Avenue with 12th Street and currently only carries eastbound traffic. The 14th Street viaduct was first opened for vehicular use in January 1951, although the road was not complete; it was officially completed that February. The 12th and 14th Street viaducts were later also connected to the New Jersey Turnpike Extension. The first part of the extension, Newark Bay Bridge, opened between Bayonne and Newark Liberty International Airport in April 1956; the connection between Bayonne and the 12th/14th Street viaducts was completed that September, providing direct highway connection between the Holland Tunnel and Newark Airport. The NJ Turnpike Extension, as well as the Holland Tunnel and the 12th/14th Street approaches, was designated as part of I-78 in 1958.

Starting in the 1940s, New York City officials developed plans to connect the Holland Tunnel's Manhattan end to the Lower Manhattan Expressway, a proposed elevated highway connecting to both the Williamsburg Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn. This connection would be part of I-78. In 1956, Robert Moses suggested adding a third tube to the Holland Tunnel, similar to the Lincoln Tunnel's third tube, so there would be sufficient capacity for the proposed expressway traffic. The route of the Lower Manhattan Expressway was approved in 1960, but quickly became controversial due to the large number of tenants who would have to be relocated. The Lower Manhattan Expressway project was ultimately canceled in March 1971.

The Port Authority voted in 1953 to replace the original tollbooths on the New Jersey side, which did not contain canopies, with an updated plaza that contained a canopy. The next year, the Port Authority also voted to refurbish the Holland Tunnel's administration building on the New Jersey side, as well as construct a new service building. The development of a 2-foot-wide (0.61 m) one-man miniature electric car for tunnel police, to be installed on the tubes' catwalks, was announced in August 1954. The Port Authority tested the "catwalk car" along a 2,200-foot (670 m) stretch of the Holland Tunnel. After the car had passed its test, policemen could patrol the full length of the tubes using the catwalk car instead of having to walk the tubes' entire length. By use of a swivel seat the policemen could drive the car in either direction.

### Late 20th century

In 1970, the Port Authority stopped collecting tolls for New Jersey-bound drivers through the Holland Tunnel, who used the westbound tube, while doubling tolls to \$1 for New York City-bound drivers, who used the eastbound tube. This was done in an effort to speed up traffic, and it was the first toll increase in the tunnel's history. Although westbound drivers initially saved time by not paying tolls, the removal of westbound tolls ultimately had an adverse effect on traffic in the Holland Tunnel. In 1986, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, between the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island, stopped collecting tolls for Brooklyn-bound drivers (who were generally headed eastbound) and doubled its tolls for Staten Island-bound drivers (who were generally headed westbound). This had the effect of increasing congestion along the New Jersey-bound tube of the Holland Tunnel, which drivers could use for free. Drivers would go through New Jersey and use the Bayonne Bridge, paying a lower toll to enter Staten Island. The amount of westbound traffic in the Holland Tunnel increased compared to eastbound traffic: by 1998, there were 50,110 daily westbound trips and 46,688 daily eastbound trips through the tunnel. Simultaneously, there was a decrease in westbound trips on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge compared to eastbound trips on the bridge. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge toll pattern also caused traffic gridlock around the Holland Tunnel, and Canal Street saw the most severe congestion because it served as the main entrance to the tunnel. Fatal accidents involving pedestrians in Lower Manhattan also increased greatly as a result. Rush-hour congestion within the Holland Tunnel has persisted for more than thirty years due to the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge's one-way westbound toll.

A renovation of the Holland Tunnel's tiled ceilings, which were deteriorating due to water damage, started in 1983. The ceilings were replaced at a total cost of \$78 million, and the south tube's ceiling was renovated first. Since the Holland Tunnel had to remain open during the renovation, 4,000 modular concrete ceiling panels were made offsite, and narrow lift trucks parked in one of the tube's two lanes installed the panels while traffic continued to move through the tube's other lane. The panels were each designed to the specifications of a certain section of tube, such that none of the ceiling panels were identical; the Port Authority stated that the ceiling-replacement project was the first one of its kind in the world. In 1988, after the ceiling renovations had been completed, work started on replacing the 8-lane tollbooth, which consisted of six lanes built in the 1950s and two additional lanes built in the 1980s. The new \$54 million tollbooth contained 9 lanes and a central control center.

The Holland Tunnel was listed as a National Historic Landmark on June 27, 1993, becoming part of the National Register of Historic Places. With this designation, it became the 92nd National Historic Landmark in New York City and the sixth such landmark nationally that was a tunnel. According to M. Ann Belkov, the National Park Service superintendent for Ellis Island, the tunnel had been granted landmark status because it had been the first "mechanically ventilated underwater vehicular tunnel" in the world.

### 21st century

Between 2003 and 2006, the fire protection system in both tunnels was modernized. Fire extinguishers were placed in alcoves along the tunnel walls. Although the water supply was turned off, it remained in place during the renovation.

The Holland Tunnel was closed on October 29, 2012, as Hurricane Sandy approached. The tunnel, like many other New York City tunnels, was flooded by the high storm surge. It remained closed for several days, opening for buses only on November 2 and to all traffic on November 7. In February 2018, the PANYNJ approved a \$364 million project to repair flood damage from the hurricane. The agency closed the Holland Tunnel's eastbound tube during late nights, except on Saturday nights, beginning in April 2020. Though the work was initially supposed to be completed in early 2022, the work was delayed by nearly a year. The PANYNJ then announced that the westbound tube would be closed during late nights, except on Saturdays, between February 2023 and late 2025.

### Accidents and terrorism

The first fatal vehicular crash in the Holland Tunnel happened in March 1932, four and a half years after it opened. One person died and two others were injured.

The 1949 Holland Tunnel fire, which started aboard a chemical truck, caused severe damage to the south tube of the tunnel. The fire resulted in 69 injuries and nearly \$600,000 worth of damage to the structure. In addition, two first responders, a FDNY battalion chief and a Port Authority patrolman, died as a result of injuries sustained in fighting the fire.

Due to its status as one of the few connections between Manhattan and New Jersey, the Holland Tunnel is considered to be one of the most high-risk terrorist target sites in the United States. Other such sites in New Jersey include the Lincoln Tunnel in Weehawken, New Jersey, the PATH station at Exchange Place in Jersey City, and the Port of Newark in Elizabeth.

In 1995, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and nine other men were convicted of a bombing plot in which a radical Islamic group plotted to blow up five or six sites in New York City, including the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels and the George Washington Bridge.

In 2006, a plot to detonate explosives in a Hudson River tunnel was uncovered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was originally reported that the Holland Tunnel was the target, but in a later update of the source, the plot was clarified to be aimed at the PATH's tubes instead of the Holland Tunnel.

#### September 11 attacks

Following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Holland Tunnel remained closed to all but emergency traffic for over a month, due to its proximity to the World Trade Center site. When the tunnel reopened on October 15, 2001, strict new regulations were enacted, and single-occupancy vehicles and trucks were banned from entering the tunnel. In March 2002, before all of the post-9/11 restrictions were lifted, a warehouse fire near the eastbound tube's New Jersey portal caused the tunnel to be closed entirely for five days; the fire continued for over a week. That April, all trucks were banned from the westbound tube, and trucks with more than three axles were also banned from the eastbound tube. Single-occupant vehicles were prohibited in the tunnel on weekday mornings between 6:00 am and 10:00 am until November 17, 2003, when the restrictions were lifted.

## Tolls

As of January 8, 2023, the tolls-by-mail rate going from New Jersey to New York City are \$17 for cars and motorcycles; there is no toll for passenger vehicles going from New York City to New Jersey. New Jersey and New York–issued E-ZPass users are charged \$12.75 for cars and \$11.75 for motorcycles during off-peak hours, and \$14.75 for cars and \$13.75 for motorcycles during peak hours. Users with E-ZPass issued from agencies outside of New Jersey and New York are charged the tolls-by-mail rate.

Tolls are collected at a tollbooth on the New Jersey side. Originally, tolls were collected in both directions. In August 1970, the toll was abolished for westbound drivers, and at the same time, eastbound drivers saw their tolls doubled. The tolls of eleven other New York City to New Jersey and Hudson River crossings along a 130-mile (210 km) stretch, from the Outerbridge Crossing in the south to the Rip Van Winkle Bridge in the north, were also changed to south- or eastbound-only at that time. E-ZPass was first made available at the Holland Tunnel in October 1997.

In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all-electronic tolling was temporarily placed in effect for all Port Authority crossings, including the Holland Tunnel. Open road tolling began on December 23, 2020. The tollbooths were dismantled, and drivers were no longer able to pay cash at the tunnel. Instead, there will be cameras mounted onto new overhead gantries at the New Jersey side going to New York City. A vehicle without E-ZPass will have a picture taken of its license plate and a bill for the toll will be mailed to its owner. For E-ZPass users, sensors will detect their transponders wirelessly. The carpool discount plan was eliminated because the discount required a manual count of passengers.

## See also

- Albert Capsouto Park, adjacent to St. John's Park
- List of bridges, tunnels, and cuts in Hudson County, New Jersey
- List of fixed crossings of the Hudson River
- List of tunnels documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in New Jersey
- List of tunnels documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in New York
- Transportation in New York City

Tunnel between New Jersey and New York

Historic American Engineering Record in New York City

Historic districts in Hudson County, New Jersey

National Historic Landmarks in Manhattan

National Historic Landmarks in New Jersey

National Register of Historic Places in Hudson County, New Jersey

New York State Register of Historic Places in New York County

Road tunnels on the National Register of Historic Places

Transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey

Transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in New York City

Transportation in Jersey City, New Jersey