Feeling Groovy

I didn't go, but I can remember the traffic snarls after it ended. Many of the attendees to Woodstock were from NY City, and had to cross the Hudson River somewhere along it to get home. Interstate 84 was fairly new at the time, many chose it for their return route rather than continue South to other bridges closer to the City. But in their infinite wisdom (NY State Politics) they had decided that this new 4 lane interstate highway only needed to have a 2 lane bridge across the Hudson and toll booths for both directions on the East end of it.

When the festival ended, the Woodstock attendees in their cars, vans, and buses were backed up with waits so long that people were camping on the sides of the interstate. It took several days before the traffic across the bridge was back to normal, and a week later before the mess from the campers was all cleaned up.. It wasn't long after the Woodstock Festival that the State began planning for a second parallel bridge, and widening/rebuilding of the first bridge to handle the I-84 interstate traffic load. They still have their toll booths, but now only collect tolls in the West bound direction. You can now cross going East bound for free (maybe this is an incentive to convince New Englanders to migrate West?). When I moved to NC it felt good to get away from NY and their tolls by going across this bridge for free. It was a short enjoyment though, because I keep going back for visits, and they get me for the tolls every trip.

Charley