December 15, 1950: The Port Authority Bus Terminal Opens

December 15, 1950, 70 years ago: The Port Authority Bus Terminal opens at 625 8th Avenue, between 40th and 41st Streets in Midtown Manhattan.

There were several bus terminals in Manhattan up until that point. The best-known one was at Pennsylvania Station, mentioned by Jack Kerouac in the 1947 section of his novel On the Road. Greyhound Lines continued to use that terminal until the original Penn Station was demolished in 1963. Only then did they move into Port Authority, finally consolidating all long-distance bus service into one complex.

The opening of the Lincoln Tunnel in 1937 brought increased road traffic into Midtown Manhattan, leading to the need for a new Midtown bus terminal, to handle both commuter and long-distance traffic. The original building occupies an entire block, from 8th to 9th Avenue, with entrances on both, and from 40th to 41st Streets.

It was named for its operator, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which also operates the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal; all the New Jersey-to-New York City road connections: The George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Holland Tunnel, the Bayonne Bridge, the Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing; the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) rail system, connecting Manhattan with Jersey City, Hoboken and Newark; and 5 airports: John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia in Queens, Newark Liberty International and Teterboro in New Jersey, and Stewart International in Orange County, New York.

As early as 1965, "Port Authority" (nobody calls it by its full name) was seen as outgrowing its original building. But, as is so often the case in New York City, what was needed took a long time to put together and build. Finally, on May 15, 1981, the North Wing opened, between 41st and 42nd Streets, and going halfway down 42nd in the direction of 8th Avenue.

The Governors of the 2 States have their names on both dedication plaques: New York's Thomas E. Dewey (1950) and Hugh L. Carey (1981), and New Jersey's Alfred E. Driscoll (also the "father" of the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway) and Brendan T. Byrne.

By that point, the Terminal was much like the City itself: A horrible mess, loaded with dirt, poverty and crime. Homeless people were everywhere. Just walking through its retail space on the ground floor was enough to sicken some people. Going into its bathrooms meant risking your wallet, or even your life. My mother recalled seeing a naked woman using a bathroom sink to bathe herself.

The 1994 Crime Bill was the turning point. Within a couple of years, the Terminal was safe again. But no less annoying for commuters.

And you don't get just how big the place is until you finish a long day in the City, come out of the A/C/E Trains stop on the Subway, go up 2 flights of stairs just to get inside the Terminal itself on the ground floor at 42nd & 8th, and then cross over 41st, walk all the way to the 9th Avenue side, and then take 3 flights of escalators to the top deck to Gate 417 to take Coach USA (formerly known as Suburban Transit) back to East Brunswick, and then have to wait on a long line, hoping there's at least 1 seat left out of the 49 on the bus, because you don't want to stand on line for another half-hour waiting for the next bus -- you might as well stand on the one you've got.

To paraphrase John Mellencamp, "I fight Port Authority, Port Authority always wins."