The “Great Achievements” article by Frank Griggs on Alfred Pancoast Boller in the November issue of STRUCTURE magazine states, “In 1909, Bolller and Hodge were appointed engineers for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.” This does not appear to be correct. The Port Authority (originally: The Port of New York Authority) was created on April 30, 1921, nine years after Mr. Boller’s death. The Hudson River crossings studied during the period from about 1900 to 1927 were presumably conducted by the New Jersey Interstate Bridge and Tunnel Commission and the New York State Bridge and Tunnel Commission, which were not part of nor rolled over into the Port Authority. Boller, Hodge & Baird was a consultant to the New York State Bridge and Tunnel Commission in 1913 that recommended a bridge at 57th Street in Manhattan to New Jersey. This plan was rejected primarily because of its substantially higher cost as compared to a tunnel (see The New York Times, 04/22/13). The Holland Tunnel project was advanced instead; it opened in 1927, and the Port Authority took over its operation in 1930.
Joseph Kelly