Bridge and tunnel

Bridge and tunnel (often abbreviated B&T or BNT) began as a pejorative term for people who commute into Manhattan from surrounding communities. Controversy exists over whether this term extends to all individuals outside of Manhattan or rather outside the area served by the city's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a trip that, due to Manhattan's geography, requires passing over a bridge and/or through a tunnel in a car. It may be used for the other New York City boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island – but is especially used for those who travel into the city from New Jersey and Long Island.

Though the term originates from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, it has come to encompass all people who originate commute from outside of New York City proper, including Connecticut, Long Island, New Jersey, and upstate New York. The Oxford Dictionaries explains that a bridge-and-tunnel person is one who lives in the suburbs and is perceived as unsophisticated. However, this is sometimes also used as allusion to New York City's vast transportation system.

The earliest known instance of this phrase in print is the December 13, 1977, edition of The New York Times:

"On the weekends, we get all the bridge and tunnel people who try to get in," he said.

Elizabeth Fondaras, a pillar of the city’s conservative social scene, who has just told Steve Rubell she had never tried to get into Studio 54 for fear of being rejected, asked who the bridge and tunnel people were.

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