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How
could Robert Moses find $109 million to fund his great
dream of a road going uptown along the River in the
midst of the Great Depression with the City bankrupted
by years of Tamany pillaging? By tapping unprecedented
amounts of federal funds for park improvements and conservation,
selling bonds to skeptical bankers, swapping land, and
borrowing from other city projects. (There is of course
no better account than that by Robert A. Caro in The
Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York,
published by Vintage Press in 1975.)
While
the Henry Hudson Parkway may have cost the public a
staggering amount to build, it also became an immediate
cash cow -- at least for the authorities who have collected
its tolls (first the Henry Hudson Bridge Authority,
the the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, now
the Metropolitan Transit Authority.) The Yonkers toll
has been eliminated, leaving only the bridge, which
was recently raised to $2.00, the rate for the city's
"minor crossings."
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HENRY
HUDSON BRIDGE
Robert Moses gambled that motorists would be willing
to pay 10 cents for the privilege of bypassing the
congested but free Broadway Bridge down below. He
was right. Within a year he convinced bond-holders
to let him add a second tier to the cash cow Henry
Hudson Bridge. The $2 toll each way - a bargain
compared to the Hudson River crossings - makes money
for the bridge's current owner, the MTA. The Regional
Plan Association has suggested earmarking some of
the bridge revenue for parkway enhancements. |
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