3. The Winding Manhattan End of the Queens Midtown Tunnel Unintentionally Slows Speeders
You might have noticed that the Queens Midtown Tunnel is particularly winding on its Manhattan rnd, a feature that many believe was incorporated to slow down speeders. According to Joyce Mulvaney, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokeswoman, in an e-mail to The New York Times, however, “…deterring drivers from speeding is an unintended consequence of the original 1930s design by Chief Engineer Ole Singstad.”
The tunnel tubes were carved “unusually deep” to avoid the shipping channel above. As a result, the ascending and descending portions of the tunnel were curved to navigate around a drastic slope — much like a road on a mountain. Additionally, the layout of the tunnel was influenced by other factors like cost of real estate and the Mid-Manhattan Expressway, which never came to fruition.