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  • George Washington Bridge tracks?

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey

Moderator: David

 #1296210  by CLamb
 
The George Washington Bridge was orginally designed for four railroad tracks on the lower level. When the Port Authority decided to build the lower level no railroads were interested so the P.A. built roadways instead. If they had opted to put the tracks in how would they have been connected to the existing rail networks? Any ideas? Wishes? I'm guessing the New York end would've connected to the New York Central lines or maybe the city subway.
 #1296256  by DutchRailnut
 
The Subway was planned to go across, the station sits right in front of GW bridge.
 #1296281  by CarterB
 
Robert Moses nixed the GWB subway plan in favor of the cross bronx expressway. It would have been an extension of the IND 8th Ave line (A,C.E). The small 174th Street Yard where the connection would have been lies under Broadway, with two tracks exiting to the south under that roadway. The plan was to build over to Ft. Lee where there would have been a loop to include several area communities.
" When the George Washington Bridge was opened in 1931, the Port Authority had in place plans for four sets of tracks that would occupy a future lower level. By the time the ''Martha Washington'' level was planned in the 50's, the obsession was all with automobile tolls.
Austin Tobin, then the authority's executive director, made the final decision that discarded the two sets of tracks that were to tie in with the IND subway at 178th Street (the original terminus of that line in the planning stage) and two sets of rails to serve a future commuter line from Washington Heights into the Passaic-Bergen area.
That was the era of the Master Builder, Robert Moses, who built brilliantly but whose tunnel vision of road over rail has saddled our area with traffic congestion that appears almost insoluble."