AM News, 1-Aug-08
By Matthew Sweeney, msweeney@am-ny.com
The best evidence of the beefed up security at the Port Authority Bus Terminal might be that a guy snapping photos inside can get stopped three times — twice by Port Authority employees and once by a plainclothes cop — within five minutes.
“They don’t like it when people start taking pictures,” a Port Authority employee said before escorting a reporter and photographer to the bus station’s administrative office where the confusion was cleared up.
The busiest bus station in the world, where some 200,000 passengers come through each weekday, has taken steps to boost security during the past year.“It has all the attributes of a suburban shopping mall and a major transportation facility,” said Ernesto Butcher, the Port Authority’s chief operating officer. “It is in the category of those kind of facilities that have been targeted around the world.”
At a cost of $100 million, the Port Authority has added steel cross braces to the south side of the south building as a seismic retrofit — a halfway-completed project to help the structure with stand natural disasters. Exterior columns were strengthened. Security cameras were added.
Bollards (barriers that are often disguised as large planters) along Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street are designed to keep vehicles from ramming the building.
The glass in the doors and the walls along the east and north sides of the building has been made shatter-proof.
Since the 9/11 attacks, the Port Authority has spent more than $200 million on security at the bus terminal.
Nicholas Casale, a security consultant, said that while it’s impossible to thwart all attacks, you can make it as difficult as possible and minimize the damage.
The watchful eyes at the Port Authority, however, may be some of the best deterrents to attacks at the terminal.
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