The westbound upper level of the George Washington Bridge was closed Tuesday night after a shooting and a single-vehicle crash mid-span. The driver was found with a gunshot wound to the head and was taken to Englewood Medical Center in critical condition.
Police said the closure covered all westbound lanes on the bridge. That stopped traffic for people trying to leave New York City and slowed eastbound traffic heading into the city.
Port Authority response
The Port Authority Police Department received reports just after 7 p.m. and sent officers to the scene. Dan Rice, a CBS News New York chopper reporter, was part of the reporting on the closure.
Commercial vehicles could only use the upper level of the bridge, so the closure hit a route that many vehicles had no way around. Traffic backed up across the Bronx to the Major Deegan Expressway.
Police investigation on George Washington Bridge
Police said the circumstances surrounding the shooting were not immediately known. They also said no arrests had been made.
The closure left the bridge operating under a traffic pattern that favored neither direction: westbound travel out of New York City was blocked, while eastbound traffic was crawling into the city. For drivers already on the bridge, the immediate question was not where the incident happened, but how long the westbound lanes would stay shut while the Port Authority Police Department continued its investigation.
