Feeling tubular: Celebrating
Hugh Carey Tunnel’s
70 years of Brooklyn-Battery
connections
Then New York City Mayor William O’Dwyer, master builder Robert Moses and
other dignitaries cut the ribbon on the southbound tube of the Brooklyn-Battery
Tunnel on May 25, 1950.
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
For 70 years, the Hugh L. Carey
(nee Brooklyn-Battery) Tunnel has
provided a vital link between Lower
Manhattan and the heart of Brooklyn in
ways that go beyond transportation.
The twin, two-lane tubes officially
turned 70 on Memorial Day, May 25.
Prior to its opening in 1950, plans for a
Brooklyn-Battery connection predated
World War II and involved the “Power
Broker” responsible for shaping much of
New York today, for better or worse.
Master builder Robert Moses, who led
the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority,
planned for a Brooklyn-Battery crossing
during the late 1930s. At fi rst, Moses
wanted to build a bridge connecting Lower
Manhattan and Red Hook, Brooklyn, but
the plan generated controversy.
According to the MTA, a number of
New Yorkers opposed the bridge plan “because
it would have required demolition
of much of Battery Park and would have
visually blocked the lower Manhattan skyline.”
Then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
was among the most vocal opponents of a
Brooklyn-Battery Bridge.
Moses ultimately abandoned the bridge
plan in favor of constructing the Brooklyn-
Battery Tunnel. Construction on the tunnel
began in 1940, but was ultimately halted
for three years due to material shortages
after the United States entered World War
II on Dec. 8, 1941. At 1.7 miles long, it’s
one of the longest, continuous underwater
tunnels in the world.
The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel opened on
May 25, 1950 to great fanfare, beginning
with a ticker tape parade just before then-
Mayor William O’Dwyer cut the ribbon on
the western side of the tube at West Street
PHOTO COURTESY OF MTA
in Lower Manhattan. The dignitaries then
drove southbound through the tunnel to
Brooklyn, where they were greeted by a
cheering crowd.
As important a transportation link to
commuters every day, the Brooklyn-Battery
Tunnel played an even greater role during the
Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center. The tunnel is the closest crossing
to the Twin Towers site, and emergency
vehicles from Brooklyn and Staten Island
used it to respond to the attacks.
One of the 343 New York City fi refi ghters
who died at the World Trade Center
that morning, Firefi ghter Stephen Siller,
famously ran through the 1.7-mile tunnel
in his gear toward the Twin Towers. Siller’s
story became the inspiration for the annual
“Tunnel-to-Towers Run,” in which thousands
run through the tunnel every September to
raise money for Stephen Siller Tunnel-to-
Towers Foundation dedicated to helping
families of fi rst responders in New York City.
On Oct. 22, 2012, the Brooklyn-Battery
Tunnel was renamed as the Hugh L. Carey
Tunnel in honor of the late former governor
of New York. One week later, the New York
City area was impacted by Superstorm
Sandy — and the Carey Tunnel became
fl ooded with 60 million gallons of seawater.
Nearly two-thirds of each tube became
submerged, damaging vital equipment and
the tubes themselves.
Within three weeks, MTA Bridges and
Tunnels hustled to make temporary repairs
and reopen them to traffi c. In the years that
followed, the authority led a massive restoration
project, repairing the tunnels’ wall
tiles, interior lighting, traffi c control signals
and pumps. Massive steel fl ood gates were
installed at the openings in Brooklyn and
Manhattan to ensure that future fl oods will
be avoided.
HIGHER ED TODAY
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Kingsborough Community College student
Jaweria Bakar grew up in Pakistan
and moved to Brooklyn with her husband in
2010. Inspired to become a doctor after her
father’s recovery from a stroke, the mother
of two enrolled at Kingsborough in the fall
of 2018, ending a decade-long educational
gap. There, she emerged as a campus leader,
and an honors biology student.
This spring, Bakar was one of three
high-achieving CUNY community college
students to win a highly competitive
Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate
Transfer Scholarship, joining an elite
group of 50 students selected from among
1,500 applicants from more than 300 community
colleges. The scholarship, worth
up to $40,000 per year, will help Bakar to
continue pursuing her bachelor’s degree at
Yale.
She is one of dozens of current CUNY
students and recent grads who have garnered
prestigious honors during this academic
awards season. In addition to the
Cooke winners, CUNY counted one Soros
winner, 16 Fulbright scholars, two Goldwater
scholars, one National Institutes of
Health’s Oxford-Cambridge Scholar, seven
National Science Foundation Graduate Research
Fellows, and the list goes on.
Even as our attention remains focused
on the medical, economic and emotional
hardships that have been wrought by the
coronavirus pandemic, our students continue
to shine. It is their resiliency, determination
and drive that make CUNY,
a transformative engine for thousands of
families with roots in every corner of the
world, a beacon of opportunity that will
be even more vital in the unsteady times
ahead.
It is important, then, that we take stock
of our students’ outstanding accomplishments,
and extend the congratulations and
recognition that they richly deserve.
This year’s cadre of standouts includes
Haiti-born poet Joel Francois, a recent
Brooklyn College grad whose family immigrated
to Brooklyn when he was 5, who was
honored with the renowned Soros Fellowship
for New Americans.
Lehman College senior Jasmine Euyoque,
the child of Mexican immigrants
and the first in her family to attend college,
won a Fulbright U.S. Student Scholarship.
Euyoque excelled in the highly selective
Lehman Scholars Program, cultivating
an interest in computer science. She plans
to spend her Fulbright year teaching English
in Uruguay, where she seeks to expose
youngsters to opportunities in tech.
Her successes, along with those of
Francois, Bakar and the others, reinforce
the values of our University.
Feting our Grads
The conclusion of the semester also
means it’s time to honor our graduates. For
more than 30,000 (CHECKING) members of
CUNY’s Class of 2020, the last leg of the college
journey took an abrupt and unimaginable
turn. These grads had their final semester
altered in unprecedented fashion,
but they still made it to the finish.
Now, despite the requirement to physically
distance in response to the coronavirus,
it is crucial that we give them a fitting
sendoff.
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In lieu of in-person ceremonies, which
most of our colleges still plan to hold when
circumstances allow, CUNY schools have
already started holding virtual festivities
that feature speakers from the worlds
of government, philanthropy and the sciences.
They include New York State Attorney
General Letitia (Tish) James; Former
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder; marine
biologist and environmental advocate
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson; two-time CUNY
graduate and immigration advocate Antonio
Alarcon; and philanthropist Judith K.
Dimon.
I am participating in many of these
virtual celebrations and have already addressed
the graduates of several schools,
including the history-making first graduating
class of CUNY’s School of Medicine.
Those brave students concluded their studies
ahead of schedule so they could join the
frontline battle against the pandemic.
As I’ve told many of our students, the
Class of 2020 has demonstrated a resilience
and resolve that inspires me. They stayed
strong, adapted and pulled together, even
as their campus life ended abruptly.
I am incredibly proud of them, and
despite the uncertain times ahead I’m as
optimistic and excited as ever about their
futures.
Please join me in congratulating them.
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10 May 28, 2020 Schneps Media