page_title: Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel
section_title: Bridge proposal
hierarchical_section_title: Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel / History / Bridge proposal
caption_attribution_description: The MTA's Hugh L. Carey Tunnel (formerly the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel) will officially close at 2 p.m. on October 29. Photo: MTA New York City Transit / Leonard Wiggins
context_page_description: The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel is a tolled tunnel in New York City that connects Red Hook in Brooklyn with Battery Park in Manhattan. The tunnel consists of twin tubes that each carry two traffic lanes under the mouth of the East River. Although it passes just offshore of Governors Island, the tunnel does not provide vehicular access to the island. With a length of 9,117 feet, the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel is the longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel in North America.
  Plans for the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel date to the 1920s. Official plans to build the tunnel were submitted in 1930, but were initially not carried out. The New York City Tunnel Authority, created in 1936, was tasked with constructing the tunnel. After unsuccessful attempts to secure federal funds, New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses proposed a Brooklyn–Battery Bridge. However, the public opposed the bridge plan, and the Army Corps of Engineers rejected the plan several times, concerned that the bridge would impede shipping access to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This prompted city officials to reconsider plans for a tunnel.
context_section_description: In January 1939, after the failure to allocate federal funds to the tunnels, Moses (now the chairman of the Triborough Bridge Authority) proposed a Brooklyn-Battery bridge. He stated that constructing a bridge would be cheaper, faster, and more efficient than building a tunnel. The bridge would consist of a six-lane tandem suspension bridge span with two back-to-back suspension bridges, and it could be built in 27 months, compared to 46 months for a tunnel. One of the other benefits, in Moses's opinion, was that the $41 million bridge would not require any federal money. Isaacs stated that a bridge would cause as much congestion as a tunnel would, so he did not favor the bridge plan. The Tunnel Authority also opposed the Brooklyn-Battery bridge because a bridge would lower property values. In response, Moses predicted that the Tunnel Authority's Queens-Midtown Tunnel would not be profitable, and that the Tunnel Authority should organize its existing affairs before deciding to build a new tunnel.
  Moses was able to garner support for the bridge from influential city and state politicians, including four of five borough presidents, Mayor La Guardia, and U.S. Senator Robert F. Wagner. In early March 1939, the New York City Planning Commission endorsed plans for the Battery Bridge, and a bill for the bridge was moved to a vote in the state legislature. The bill was proposed for a vote in the City Council, but this was blocked due to concerns that the bridge's connection to the East River Drive would not be able to accommodate future traffic volumes.  The American Institute of Architects asked that the city reconsider the bridge, as it would obstruct the dramatic view of the Manhattan skyline, reduce Battery Park to minuscule size, and destroy what was then the New York Aquarium at Castle Clinton. There was significant opposition from the public, and so the City Council Committee on State Legislation did not approve the plan. In response, Moses changed the Brooklyn-Battery bridge plans to include landscaping work at Battery Park. La Guardia believed that if this revised plan were passed, Ickes would finally allocate a PWA grant to the bridge project. On March 28, the City Council voted to approve the bridge project, with 19 members in favor and 6 opposed. Two days later, both chambers of the New York State Legislature passed bills that permitted the construction of the Brooklyn-Battery bridge, and Governor Herbert H. Lehman signed the bills within the week.
  Moses quickly sought to obtain approval from the United States Department of War, which needed to approve the plan. He also started looking for PWA and RFC financing so the bridge could be completed by July 1941. As part of the approval process, the United States Army held a public hearing to solicit opinions on the bridge plan. Seventeen civic groups formed a committee to solidify their opposition to the bridge plans, and the Municipal Art Society criticized the proposed bridge as an act of "vandalism" toward the city's public parks. Opponents claimed that the bridge would block naval traffic, a suggestion that La Guardia and Moses refuted.
  The Department of War ultimately declined to endorse the Brooklyn-Battery Bridge. In May 1939 Robert Woodring, the United States Secretary of War, blocked the construction of the bridge due to concerns over the span's potential to become a naval obstruction during a war, since the Brooklyn Navy Yard was located shoreward of the proposed bridge. In response, Moses submitted a revised plan for the bridge and asked the Department of War to reconsider. Moses and Brooklyn politicians declared that they would not accept anything other than an endorsement of the second plan. However, in July, the War Department also rejected the second plan, since the new plan would also pose a wartime hazard. Advocates for the bridge called the rejection a "setback to business". They also discounted the decision as hypocritical since numerous other bridges (including the Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge, which stood between the proposed bridge and the Nav
caption: A view of the tunnel without any vehicles in it
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