Bridge and Tunnel People

Manhattanites have a funny way of thinking about those not living in their borough, and a fairly condescending one at that. Think of Bridge and Tunnel people as a modern “barbarian”, for those that commute into Manhattan, which requires taking a bridge or tunnel. I have always been a Bridge and Tunnel Person, either when in Brooklyn or Jersey.

But there is some irony going on right now, and I do love good irony. With the MTA strike, myself and many other Jersey commuters have had little problem getting to the office, but the locals have a much harder time. But New Jersey Transit created a new route for the PATH, between World Trade Center downtown to 34th Street, to connect downtown with the midtown trains. The part I like is that many of those taking that line don’t realize and won’t admit they are traveling thru Jersey to get from one point to the other. I’m pretty sure they think PATH just dug a tunnel in the last couple of days.

So the trains don’t stop in the two stations in Jersey and just skip by, lest people might mingle. But I still think this counts as a Bridge or Tunnel, and adds a few more to our ranks. Long live the B&T’s!

And a nice definition from Urbandictionary:

People who live in the suburban arears of new York City (Long Island, Westchester, and also New Jersey) They invade Manhattan. They have heavy NY thick accents, are behind in fashion-they think it is still 1990. The girls have big hair and fake dark tans with long fake nails. The guys are typically guidos yet there are also guys who are 35 and still wearing their 1985 Motley Crue attire.

Everyone whos from Manhhtan hate these people. They are beneath us.

The term is a Studio 54 era hold-out:

13 December 1977, New York Times, Pg. 83:
“On the weekends, we get all the bridge and tunnel people who try to get in,” he said.

Elizabeth Fondaras, a pillar of the city’s conservative social scene, who has just told Mr. Rubell she had never tried to get into Studio 54 for fear of being rejected, asked who the bridge and tunnel people were.

“Those people from Queens and Staten Island and those places,” he said.

22 April 1981, New York Times, pg. C1:
“One Saturday night we had 36 no-shows. It’s because then you get the sort of people who don’t go regularly to restaurants and don’t know—the bridge and tunnel crowd.”

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