The Holland Tunnel in New York was also built by a Czech company

New York/Praha - At its time, the Holland Tunnel, which connects New York and New Jersey under the Hudson River, was the longest underwater vehicle tunnel in the world (since 2000, the longest road tunnel in the world is the Norwegian Laerdal Tunnel - 24.5 kilometers). This unique structure, over two and a half kilometers long, which took more than seven years to construct, is considered groundbreaking, particularly due to the resolution of the tunnel ventilation issue. The tunnel was opened 80 years ago, on November 13, 1927.
The ceramic company RAKO from Rakovník also participated in the construction of the tunnel, having succeeded in a public competition in 1926 and supplying 15,000 square meters of tiles for the tunnel.
Discussions on building a bridge or tunnel between Manhattan and New Jersey began as early as the beginning of the 20th century, as ferries could no longer keep up with the increasing number of vehicles. Initially, a bridge was considered, but later a cheaper tunnel was chosen.
The dual-tube tunnel (the northern tube measures 2,608 meters, the southern 2,551 meters; each has two lanes), which began construction on October 12, 1920, is named after engineer Clifford Milburn Holland, who designed it. However, he died just a day before the tunnels were connected under the river in 1924 at the young age of 41. Norwegian engineer Ole Singstad continued his work and completed it on November 13, 1927.
The construction cost $48 million at the time, 13 workers lost their lives during it, and then U.S. President Calvin Coolidge symbolically opened it with the same key used for the Panama Canal in 1915.
On its first day, 51,694 cars passed through the tunnel, taking eight minutes, and the toll was 50 cents. Today, the toll is six dollars (only in the direction to New York), the journey sometimes takes over an hour, and more than 100,000 vehicles pass through the tunnel daily. Since 1927, it is estimated that over 1.5 billion vehicles have traveled through the tunnel.
The tunnel is regarded as a groundbreaking architectural work, particularly due to the successful resolution of the tunnel ventilation problem. There are 84 giant fans in the tunnel, capable of exchanging the air in the tunnel every 90 minutes.
The giant fans, over 24 meters in diameter (about the size of a ten-story building), have sometimes caused problems. In an explosion of chemical cargo on May 13, 1949, which destroyed 23 cars, damaged over 180 meters of the tunnel's ceiling and walls (with damages reaching $600,000), and injured 66 people, these fans fanned the flames within the tunnel. Afterward, restrictive operational rules were introduced for the tunnel. Allegedly, following this incident, the disaster thriller Daylight starring Sylvester Stallone was filmed in 1996.
The tunnel was also closed for a time after the terrorist attacks on New York on September 11, 2002, and from 2003 to 2006, the tunnel's fire protection system was improved.
In July 2006, plans for a terrorist attack specifically on the Holland Tunnel were discovered by the FBI. The attackers allegedly hoped to create a large hole in the tunnel wall through which enough water would flow to flood the area around Wall Street. Experts deemed this unrealistic, as the tunnel runs beneath the bed of the Hudson River and Manhattan is situated many meters higher.
Another, three-tube tunnel under the Hudson River, the Lincoln Tunnel, was gradually opened from 1937 to 1957.