Revered and reviled in almost equal amounts since its inception, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has been responsible for creating and maintaining much of New York and New Jersey's transportation infrastructure -- the things that make the region work. Doig traces the evolution of the Port Authority from the battles leading to its creation in 1921 through its conflicts with the railroads and its expansion to build bridges and tunnels for motor vehicles. Chronicling the adroit maneuvers that led the Port Authority to take control of the region's airports and seaport operations, build the largest bus terminal in the nation, and construct the World Trade Center, Doig reveals the rise to power of one of the world's largest specialized regional governments.

This definitive history of the Port Authority underscores the role of several key players -- Austin Tobin, the obscure lawyer who became Executive Director and a true "power broker" in the bi-state region, Julius Henry Cohen, general counsel of the Port Authority for its first twenty years, and Othmar H. Ammann, the Swiss engineer responsible for the George Washington Bridge, the Bayonne and Goethels bridges, the Outerbridge Crossing, and the Lincoln Tunnel.

Today, with public works projects stalled by community opposition in almost every village and city, the story of how the Port Authority managed to create an empire on the Hudson offers lessons for citizens and politicians everywhere.

Revered and reviled in almost equal amounts since its inception, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has been responsible for creating and maintaining much of New York and New Jersey's transportation infrastructure -- the things that make the region work. Doig traces the evolution of the Port Authority from the battles leading to its creation in 1921 through its conflicts with the railroads and its expansion to build bridges and tunnels for motor vehicles. Chronicling the adroit maneuvers that led the Port Authority to take control of the region's airports and seaport operations, build the largest bus terminal in the nation, and construct the World Trade Center, Doig reveals the rise to power of one of the world's largest specialized regional governments.

This definitive history of the Port Authority underscores the role of several key players -- Austin Tobin, the obscure lawyer who became Executive Director and a true "power broker" in the bi-state region, Julius Henry Cohen, general counsel of the Port Authority for its first twenty years, and Othmar H. Ammann, the Swiss engineer responsible for the George Washington Bridge, the Bayonne and Goethels bridges, the Outerbridge Crossing, and the Lincoln Tunnel.

Today, with public works projects stalled by community opposition in almost every village and city, the story of how the Port Authority managed to create an empire on the Hudson offers lessons for citizens and politicians everywhere.

Jameson W. Doig and Erwin C. Hargrove outline a perspective on leadership in government that emphasizes entrepreneurship. They show how government executives' ability to set goals, generate support inside and outside the bureaucracy, and implement innovative ideas-- even at risk to their own careers-- can have a significant impact on their organizations and on society.

In this abridged edition, biographical studies of David Lilienthal, Hyman Rickover, James Webb, Nancy Hanks, Robert McNamara, Wilbur Cohen, Robert Ball, and Austin Tobin illustrate a variety of skills and strategies used by effective executives. Doig and Hargrove describe their styles as ranging from "rhetorical leaders" to "entrepreneurial administrators." Yet these diverse leaders share some important traits, including a capacity to see historical opportunity, the ability to mobilize constituencies, and a desire to "make a difference."

This volume is the fourth in the Franklin K. Lane series on the governance of major metropolitan regions. The series is sponsored by the Institute of Governmental Studies and the Institute of International Studies, University of California in Berkeley. Readers of these volumes and other relevant literature will no doubt agree with the authors of this book that similar patterns are found in New York, London, Toronto, Stockholm, and indeed in "every other major metropolitan region in the United States and in other advanced industrial societies." The presence of such common factors and trends, although they assume different configurations in various metropolitan regions, has been demonstrated by the work of many scholars, including Peter Hall, Brian Berry, Marion Clawson, Jean Gottmann, Larry Bourne and William Robson, as well as by the authors of the other Franklin K. Lane books-Donald Foley, Albert Rose and Thomas Anton. In the present volume Michael Danielson and Jameson Doig have described and analyzed the cultural, economic, political and other social forces shaping development in the New York region. They present a picture of a region singular in its attractions, problems, geographic scope, magnitude of development, and complexity of the network of organizations involved in its governance.