Port authority created

One hundred years ago today, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was formed, creating the body that has overseen New York City-area transportation ever since. 

As Roz Hamlitt writes:

On that momentous Saturday in 1921, a group of men from New York and New Jersey, gathered in a spirit of civility inside the elaborately paneled Great Hall of the New York Chamber of Commerce in Lower Manhattan to sign the Port Compact, creating the Port District of New York & New Jersey, the first authority in the country.

Among the signatories were former New York Governor Al Smith and current one Miller. Mayor John Hylan skipped the event.

The Port Authority’s domain is a roughly 1,500-square-mile area that includes the entirety of NYC, a swath of New York State north of the city as far as Tarrytown, extending to the Connecticut border, the coast of northeastern New Jersey as far south Perth Amboy. (Sheridan)

The Compact between the two states summarizes the purpose:

The port authority shall constitute a body, both corporate and politic, with full power and authority to purchase, construct, lease and/or operate any terminal or transportation facility within said district; and to make charges for the use thereof: and for any of such purposes to own, hold, lease and/or operate real or personal property, to borrow money and secure the same by bonds or by mortgages upon any property held or to be held by it. No property now or hereafter vested in or held by either state, or by any county, city, borough, village, township or other municipality, shall be taken by the port authority, without the authority or consent of such state, county, city, borough, village, township or other municipality, nor shall anything herein impair or invalidate in any way any bonded indebtedness of such state, county, city, borough, village, township or other municipality, nor impair the provisions of law regulating the payment into sinking funds of revenues derived from municipal property, or dedicating the revenues derived from any municipal property to a specific purpose. 

(“Article V,” New York-New Jersey Port Authority Compact of 1921)

Read the full text of the Compact here.

The Port Authority, innovative, influential a creation as it was, has been an object of criticism for the duration of its existence, and many have called to reform it. Transportation routes that traverse New York and New Jersey remain a national concern and a political issue, as we pointed out while reporting on the groundbreaking for the Holland Tunnel last October. 

References/Further reading:

Hamlitt, Roz. “Port Authority: 95th Anniversary of the Port Compact of 1921.” The Official Blog of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. 29 April, 2016. 

“Infrastructure: New York City (NYC): Port Authority.” NYC Data. 

Sheridan, Dick. “History Of The Port Authority: When N.Y. And N.J. Joined Forces To Solve Chaos At Nation's Foremost Gateway.” Daily News, 14 August 2017. 

– Jonathan Goldman, April 30, 2021

TAGS: Infrastructure, shipping, commerce, transportation, port