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Welcome to
MTA Bridges and Tunnels

Introduction

Largest among the nation's bridge and tunnel toll authorities in terms of traffic volume, MTA Bridges and Tunnels serves more than a million people daily in the New York metropolitan area. As a constituent agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), its dual role is to operate seven bridges and two tunnels and to provide surplus toll revenues to help support public transit. Its facilities are the:


Over 800,000 vehicles use these facilities each day. Bridges and Tunnels evolved from the Triborough Bridge Authority, a public benefit corporation created by the New York State Legislature in 1933 to build the Triborough Bridge when the city's attempts were halted by the Depression. Between 1934 and 1968, under the leadership of Robert Moses, the authority grew in a series of mergers involving four other agencies: the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority, the Marine Parkway Authority, the New York City Parkway Authority, and the New York City Tunnel Authority. Robert Moses's years at Triborough coincided with the national era of public works construction for the automobile. The authority's bridges and tunnels forged vital links among the city's boroughs, ultimately shaping regional travel and economic patterns.

Triborough also built the Battery Parking Garage, the East Side Airlines Terminal, the Coliseum Office Building and Exposition Center, the Jacob Riis Beach Parking Field, and the Jacob Javits Convention Center, and it helped develop numerous parks around the city.

By the 1960s the city was becoming choked by automobile congestion and pollution, and the need to restore long neglected subway, bus, and commuter rail systems became apparent. Accordingly, in 1968 the Tribororough Bridge and Tunnel Authority was made part of the MTA. Its surplus revenues, previously used to finance new projects for the automobile, were redirected to public transportation. Since that time, bridge and tunnel tolls have contributed more than $12 billion to subsidize fares and underwrite capital improvements for New York City Transit, the Long Island Rail Road, and the Metro-North Railroad. Total toll revenues, more than $ 1 billion annually, and Bridges and Tunnels' Five Year Capital Program will keep its facilities among the best maintained in the region.

 

"MTA is committed to ensuring that no person is excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of its services on the basis of race, color or national origin as protected by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended (“Title VI”). If you believe you have been subjected to discrimination under Title VI, you may file a written complaint with MTA Office of Civil Rights, 2 Broadway, 16th floor, New York, N.Y. 10004."