Ron Johnson, 52, a cashier at the convenience store, said he made it to work in his truck with four-wheel drive just in time to hear a river of commuters complain.
Gridlock as a Way of Life One morning recently, a river of commuters cascaded down the Lexington Avenue sidewalks, then merged in a stubborn bottleneck at the 86th Street subway station, which serves some of the system's most crowded lines.
Lumley said the new bridge would provide more than just a river crossing for the weary commuter.
There were birds of all sorts: chaffinches, a moorhen hurrying down river hunched over like a commuter in the sleet; a mallard moulting so its head looked splashed with whitewash.
If the surge had been just that much higher, subway tunnels would have flooded, segments of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive and roads along the Hudson River would have turned into rivers, and sections of the commuter rail system would have been impassable or bereft of power, he said.
At one point, early in the station's planning, Euro-Liège had considered building a canal in order to link the station with the river — a vaporetto service for commuters, like that in Venice, was also proposed — but the logistics proved impossible.
The previous tunnel project had been estimated to cost $8.7 billion and would have doubled the capacity for commuter trains crossing the river.
The idea has become an intriguing Plan B after Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey scuttled a plan to dig a new commuter railroad under the river.
Nonetheless, the city authorities advised people to stay away from the banks of the river and part of Paris's commuter train system that runs below ground along the Seine was shut as a preventive measure.
Martin Ginsburg, a Westchester County developer, is planning a $250 million project that will turn Haverstraw's waterfront into a luxurious place to live, with a promenade, restaurants and a new station for the ferry to the commuter trains across the river.
That has been obvious for years as many firms moved to more convenient digs in midtown, or slipped across the river to Jersey City, or followed the commuter railroad tracks north to Stamford, Conn.
