George Washington Bridge, World’s Busiest Motor-Vehicle Bridge, Starts Cashless Tolling

The upper deck of the George Washington Bridge
The days of the friendly toll takers at the storied George Washington Bridge, which links the U.S. mainland to New York City, have come to an end.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey replaced on Sunday the current toll-booth system with open-road or cashless tolling.
Open road tolling is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of toll boots; instead, an electronic toll collection system – usually placed over the lanes of traffic – is used.
The George Washington Bridge is the world’s busiest motor-vehicle bridge and carries over 100 million vehicles per year.  It is a major travel corridor within the New York metropolitan area and has a total of 14 lanes, seven in each direction, over two decks.
The bridge was first conceived of in 1906 but construction started in 1927 and it opened to traffic on October 24, 1931.
When the bridge opened, tolls were collected on both sides of the bridge and passage for a car was $0.50 ($9.23 in 2021 dollars).  The original toll booths, which are no longer in existence, were replaced in 1970 by a series of toll booths on the New Jersey side.  Tolls are only collected for east-bound traffic and the current price is $16, although vehicles with E-ZPass transponders issued in New York State and New Jersey are only charged $11.75.  There is no toll for bicycle or pedestrian traffic.
The GWB, as it is commonly referred to, was designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers on October 24, 1981, the 50th anniversary of the bridge’s dedication.
Over 75% of vehicles using the crossing already use E-ZPass to pay the toll, the Port Authority said.  It is a major travel corridor not only for private vehicles but for trucks, thereby enabling commerce between the mainland and Long Island as well as serving as a major truck route from New Jersey to New England.
The plan to install the $240 million system was announced in July 2019 and was originally intended to be in place by mid 2021. Several Port Authority crossings from New Jersey to New York – the Bayonne Bridge and Outerbridge Crossing to Staten Island, the latter named after Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge, first chairman of the Port of New York Authority – already have cashless toll systems in operation as does the Goethals Bridge.
With the institution of the new system, the toll booths currently in place will be taken out, removing a link to a memorable chapter in New Jersey’s political history known as “Bridgegate,” a political scandal involving members of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s staff who colluded to create traffic jams in nearby Fort Lee, New Jersey, by closing lanes at the main toll plaza, in order to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for failing to support Christie in the 2013 gubernatorial election.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)