page_title: Lincoln Tunnel
section_title: Route numbering
hierarchical_section_title: Lincoln Tunnel / Route numbering
caption_attribution_description: English: NY 9A northbound exit 5. Taken March 27, 2001 by User:SPUI.
context_page_description: The Lincoln Tunnel is an approximately 1.5-mile-long tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey, to the west with Midtown Manhattan in New York City to the east. It was designed by Ole Singstad and named after Abraham Lincoln. The tunnel consists of three vehicular tubes of varying lengths, with two traffic lanes in each tube. The center tube contains reversible lanes, while the northern and southern tubes exclusively carry westbound and eastbound traffic, respectively.
  The Lincoln Tunnel was originally proposed in the late 1920s and early 1930s as the Midtown Hudson Tunnel. The tubes of the Lincoln Tunnel were constructed in stages between 1934 and 1957. Construction of the central tube, which originally lacked sufficient funding due to the Great Depression, started in 1934 and it opened in 1937. The northern tube started construction in 1936, was delayed due to World War II-related material shortages, and opened in 1945. Although the original plans for the Lincoln Tunnel called for two tubes, a third tube to the south of the existing tunnels was planned in 1950 due to high traffic demand on the other two tubes.
context_section_description: Originally, the Lincoln Tunnel would have connected to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, on the other side of Manhattan, via the Mid-Manhattan Expressway. Manhattan Borough President Samuel Levy first proposed the Mid-Manhattan Expressway connector in 1936.  Updated plans for the crosstown highway were released in 1944 and featured a connection to the then-proposed Port Authority Bus Terminal. The plans were eventually changed to a crosstown tunnel across 30th Street, and the city approved a preliminary survey for the crosstown tunnel. The city briefly held up plans for the Lincoln Tunnel's southernmost tube in 1951 and 1952 because it wanted the Port Authority to build part of the expressway, although this requirement was later dropped. The Interstate 495 (I-495) designation was assigned to the New Jersey approach to the tunnel in anticipation of the Mid-Manhattan Expressway being completed.
  The Mid-Manhattan Expressway project was ultimately canceled and the I-495 designation removed from the expressway on January 1, 1970. However, the I-495 designation in New Jersey remained for some time, as it was anticipated that it would remain part of the Interstate Highway System. Much of the New Jersey stretch of I-495 became Route 495 in 1979. The Westway project, proposed in 1971, called for building an I-478 to link I-278 in Brooklyn, I-78 at the Holland Tunnel, and I-495 at the Lincoln Tunnel. The Westway project was officially abandoned in 1985 after a series of lawsuits from environmental advocates. The last part of I-495 in New Jersey was decommissioned the next year, and the Lincoln Tunnel was thus removed from the Interstate system. In Manhattan, 34th Street and other crosstown streets link the tunnel with I-495.
  As of 2018, the part of the tunnel within New Jersey carries Route 495. It is disputed whether the part of the tunnel within New York contains the unsigned New York State Route 495 (NY 495).  A 2016 highway inventory listing from the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) considers NY 495 to be 1.09 miles (1.75 km) long, running through the tunnel, from the New Jersey State Line east to the intersection of Dyer Avenue and 34th Street. However, the NYSDOT also published two "official descriptions of highway touring routes" in 2004 and 2017, in which it did not consider the Lincoln Tunnel within New York to be part of NY 495. According to these documents, the NY 495 designation instead applies to part of the Long Island Expressway (I-495) in Queens, and the Lincoln Tunnel does not have an official route designation.
caption: Old "I-495 Lincoln Tunnel" sign, still in situ along the West Side Highway
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