Not long ago, we urged readers to suggest new names for the project to build an additional commuter rail tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan.  We hoped for a moniker more descriptive than the planner-ish ARC (Access to the Region’s Core)  and less off-putting and awkward than the typo-like THE (Trans-Hudson Express) Tunnel. 

   But initial responses didn’t improve much on these, prompting reflection on the process by which pieces of transportation networks are named. 

   Interestingly, existing commuter rail tunnels in the region have either no or completely obscured names.  On the other hand, all of the region’s large car tunnels have names (the Holland being named for the chief engineer of the Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel project, who died on the job in 1927), most major bridges are named (even the all-rail Hell Gate Bridge) and even the East River subway tunnels tend to be named for streets they run under .

   The responses also reflected tension between the functional names often attached during planning and construction and the final, often commemorative names assigned upon completion (note Holland Tunnel example above). Given that getting a big project done these days often requires a political and public sell-job lasting years, the ideal name would somehow both describe the project and lend some extra public appeal. The Pulaski Skyway, for instance, remembers a Revolutionary War general and finds an exciting description for the elevated road.

   In eras of easier public works, New York often got away with the most banal geographic naming for many of its crossings — the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, for example. The city has done somewhat better with historical names, though not always without struggle. The Verrazano Narrows Bridge escaped a “Brooklyn-Staten Island” label thanks to a dogged decade-plus battle by the Italian Historical Society (which was nearly derailed by the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy).

   Some of our better submissions for the commuter rail project are in the historical- or famous-figure category, though we admit they may do little to build the project’s identity as it seeks the billions needed for construction: “Service will be great once the Springsteen Tunnel is built!” (Isn’t Bruce driving aimlessly in a lot of songs? On the other hand he put out “Tunnel of Love”). 

   We also liked:

The Rosa Parks Transitway

The North River Railway (after an archaic name    for the Hudson River).

The Half Moon Tunnel (after Hudson’s ship). v

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