NYC Tunnel Catwalk Cars

The Holland Tunnel, located under the Hudson River in New York City, was opened in 1927, connecting Lower Manhattan in the east to Jersey City in New Jersey in the west. At the time of its opening, it was the longest continuous underwater tunnel for vehicular traffic in the world and the world’s first mechanically ventilated tunnel.

The tunnel – named in memory of Clifford Milburn Holland, its initial chief engineer who died suddenly in 1924 – quickly became very popular with motorists, and half a million vehicles had passed through the tunnel within three weeks. Within the first year, 8.5 million vehicles had used the tunnel.

Traffic control was managed by six Port Authority Police Department officers who traversed the tunnel on foot along a two-and-a-half-foot-wide catwalk running the length of the tunnel.

In August 1954, the Port Authority announced the development of a one-man miniature 240v electric car for use on these catwalks to allow tunnel police to reach the scene of an accident or breakdown inside the tunnel almost immediately to expedite the clearance of disabled vehicles.

The ten-foot-long, two-foot-wide “catwalk car” was tested along a 2,200-foot stretch of the Holland Tunnel, and the vehicles were brought into service in December of that year.

By use of a swivel seat, the policemen could drive the three-horsepower electric catwalk car along a rail in either direction, selecting speeds of 6 mph or 12 mph by push-button. These more efficient patrols reduced the required patrol staff from six to four officers.

Four similar vehicles were brought into service in the Lincoln Tunnel in 1960. These open-topped cars – manufactured in steel and aluminium by the vestigial military manufacturing division of furnace manufacturer Lennox and capable of speeds up to 35 mph – used a different design from the Holland Tunnel cars (which had a canopy) and were hooked to a wall rail with sheet-metal sides (pictured above and below).

Despite their modest power, the catwalk cars were used in a limited capacity until 2011, when they were fully retired. A Lincoln Tunnel Catwalk car is preserved at the Hoboken Historical Museum in New Jersey.