(
)
The terrorist’s guide to New York City was revealed yesterday.
Some of the most heavily trafficked bridges, tunnels and transit hubs in the world are on a list of Port Authority facilities vulnerable to terrorist attacks, according to documents obtained by The Post.
The Hudson River crossings to Manhattan — the Lincoln and Holland tunnels and the George Washington Bridge — along with the Bayonne Bridge, the roadway under the Port Authority Bus Terminal and the AirTrain to Kennedy Airport. all get inadequate policing, the documents show.
All of the facilities are operated by an agency with tragic experience in terrorism, from the 1975 attack at La Guardia Airport to the 1993 and 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.
“We have a real soft underbelly that can be used against us,” said state Sen. Greg Ball (R-Putnam), chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs, which obtained the confidential document during a hearing on homeland security in Manhattan.
The list was provided by the PA’s police union, the Police Benevolent Association, and meant to be confidential.
But Ball revealed the AirTrain’s vulnerability during the hearing yesterday after being handed the list — much to the shock of PBA Executive Vice President Robert Morris, who was testifying at the time.
Especially vulnerable is the area near Terminal 4, which houses many international airlines — including Israeli carrier El Al and several others serving the Muslim world, such as Royal Jordanian, Pakistan International and Emirates.
The train, which runs 24/7, is “unmanned and unpoliced,” Morris said in response to Ball’s revelation.
Morris said PA cops pulled just 40 tours of duty aboard the trains last year — meaning no cops were present 97 percent of the time.
“This is the type of thing that should have been exposed years ago,” Ball said. “We should have uniformed people on that transportation corridor. We don’t in any way.”
So few cops are assigned to the George Washington Bridge and the Holland and Lincoln tunnels that a police incident at one would draw so many officers from the other two that they would be left completely unmanned, cops say.
And a roadway beneath the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown has been unguarded for years, leaving it open to anyone who wants to drive in. The terminal serves 200,000 commuters a day and is the largest by volume in the world.
Also, the Bayonne Bridge has so few cops it often has no police coverage whatsoever.
In a statement, the PA said it had spent more than $6 billion since 9/11 on a “multilayered security protocol [that] includes technological elements as well as private security.”
It said the way PA cops are deployed, “as well as cameras and the entirety of our security apparatus, means the traveling public should feel safe.”
Sitting ducks
The Port Authority’s most vulnerable sites, according to its police union:
1. Lincoln & Holland tunnels, GW Bridge
An incident at one site would leave the other two without police coverage.
2. JFK AirTrain
There are no cops patrolling the rails 97 percent of the time.
3. Port Authority Bus Terminal
A roadway that runs below it is totally unmanned.
4. Bayonne Bridge
It is left with no police coverage several times during the day.
Additional reporting by Frank Rosario and Philip Messing