Here's a letter to the Times that wasn't published:
I was very intrigued by your recent column about a proposed tunnel
connecting Long Island to Westchester. As the piece noted, this
tunnel follows a route long ago advocated by Robert Moses. If such a
tunnel were ever to be built, it would validate one of Moses' original
designs for the road network encircling New York City; thus, in a way,
this proposal revitalizes his original dream. However, it is worth
pointing out that Moses' original plan was for a bridge, not a tunnel.
Moses, in fact, strongly disliked and actively opposed tunnels,
whereas he felt bridges made a stronger and grander statement. Thus,
the interesting twist in the column is how it simultaneously revives
Moses' original dream just as it implicitly criticizes his
stubbornness.
Letter in response to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/nyregion/29towns.html
November 29, 2007
Our Towns
For a Tunnel to Go 16 Miles, No Light Yet
By PETER APPLEBOME
GARDEN CITY, N.Y.
A reasonably sane person contemplating the modest proposal of the
developer Vincent Polimeni to build a $10 billion, privately financed,
16-mile tunnel linking Long Island and Westchester the longest
autos-only tunnel in the world and the first to be privately built in
the United States might start with two thoughts.
The first: This might be a brilliant idea or a nutty one, but in an
era of shrunken ambitions, give the guy credit for a big idea that
goes back to Robert Moses, who in the 1960s championed a bridge over
pretty much the same route.....
