This late 1930s or early 1940s black-and-white educational film (in French) was produced by the Maritime Administration of the Port of New York. It shows New York street scenes and detailed views of the construction of the Lincoln Tunnel, built in 1937, originally known as the Midtown Hudson Tunnel. The film opens with a view of the New York skyline and steamboats on the Hudson River (0:30) and then segues to an aerial view. Cars drive over the George Washington Bridge from the north (1:02) and into the Holland Tunnel (1:03) from the south. A Davidson freight truck drives into the Holland Tunnel (1:04). Cars and people are shown in a traffic jam in the crowded streets of Manhattan as a traffic signal with STOP and GO signs waves them on (1:35). Three engineers stand at the beginning opening of the Lincoln Tunnel (1:46). The tunnel was built with a tunneling shield to protect workers from collapse. A cross-section of the underground surface of the tunnel is shown, with two 6-meter tubes tunneling under the Hudson. Men are shown undergoing tests in a metal underground compression chamber (2:34). A New York Port Authority identification tag has written, “If ill rush to hospital by ambulance lock at 39th St. & 11th Ave. N.Y. City or south of pier at Hudson River Weehawken N.J. by authority.” (2:55). Construction scenes of the early tunnel tubes and workers (3:12). The cross-section animation shows the tubes going deeper underground. Workers bore into the walls underground and pull a lever to ignite dynamite (3:37). Workers dig out the tunnel with picks and shovels. An early view of the entrance to the first tube is shown (4:13). Workers descend stairs and watch a pressure gauge in the tube as they go underground. The tunneling shield is shown closely, especially the hydraulic jacks and caisson (5:16). Teams of men receive supplies from overhead pulleys and boxes (5:43). A rotating hydraulic assembly arm puts tunnel segments in place (6:21). A tube is shown advancing from the New Jersey side of the tunnel toward the New York side on the cross-section diagram (6:49). A man looks through a telescope to direct the workers (7:05). On the diagram, the two sides of the tunnel tubes meet from the New York and New Jersey sides (7:13). Men crawl through the tunnel and install glass tiles on the floor and walls (7:42). Animated diagrams detailing airflow through the tunnel ventilation system are shown (8:15). The film ends with cars driving through the finished Lincoln Tunnel.

The Lincoln Tunnel is an approximately 1.5-mile-long (2.4 km) tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey, to the west with Midtown Manhattan in New York City to the east. It was designed by Ole Singstad and named after Abraham Lincoln. The tunnel consists of three vehicular tubes of varying lengths, with two traffic lanes in each tube. The center tube contains reversible lanes, while the northern and southern tubes exclusively carry westbound and eastbound traffic, respectively. The Lincoln Tunnel was originally proposed in the late 1920s and early 1930s as the Midtown Hudson Tunnel. The tubes of the Lincoln Tunnel were constructed in stages between 1934 and 1957. Construction of the central tube, which originally lacked sufficient funding due to the Great Depression, started in 1934 and it opened in 1937. The northern tube started construction in 1936, was delayed due to World War II-related material shortages, and opened in 1945. Although the original plans for the Lincoln Tunnel called for two tubes, a third tube to the south of the existing tunnels was planned in 1950 due to high traffic demand on the other two tubes. The third tube started construction in 1954, with the delay attributed to disputes over tunnel approaches, and opened in 1957. Since then, the Lincoln Tunnel has undergone a series of gradual improvements, including changes to security and tolling methods.

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