Definition
The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority was the public benefit corporation Robert Moses chaired from 1934 until 1968. Originally created to finance the Triborough Bridge with toll revenue, it absorbed every major toll crossing in the city and became, in Moses's hands, the closest thing to a self-funding shadow government any American administrator has ever assembled.
Its bonds were sold to private investors and pledged against toll revenue. Once issued, they could not be redeemed early without consent of the bondholders — a clause Moses drafted into the statute himself. That clause put the authority, and Moses, structurally beyond the reach of any single mayor or governor.
Why it matters
How it works
A public authority gets three things at once: the credibility of a government issuer when selling bonds, the operational freedom of a private corporation when spending the proceeds, and a leadership structure insulated from electoral politics by contract law. Combine these with a tolled asset whose revenues recur indefinitely, and you have an institution that can rebuild itself perpetually, accumulate surplus, and use that surplus to fund new projects without legislative approval.
The model is durable. American transportation authorities, port authorities, water authorities, and many state convention-center authorities all run on variations of the Triborough template. The implicit critique in Caro's account is that the structure is corrosive to democratic accountability — efficient at building, terrible at responding to the public it ostensibly serves.