Built between 1904 and 1908 by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to allow its trains to reach Manhattan, they opened for service in late 1910.

The tunnels were damaged by extensive flooding brought on by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, causing frequent delays in train operations.

[6] After unsuccessfully trying to create a bridge over the Hudson River, the PRR and the LIRR developed several proposals for improved regional rail access in 1892, as part of the New York Tunnel Extension project.

The Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York Railroad, incorporated on February 13, 1902, was to oversee construction of the North River Tunnels.

[12][13] Led by Chief Engineer Charles M. Jacobs, the tunnel design team began work in 1902.

[14] The contract for building the North River Tunnels was awarded to O'Rourke Engineering Construction Company in 1904.

As a result, this part was driven under compressed air, using 194-ton shields that met about 3,000 feet (910 m) from the Weehawken and Manhattan portals.

[19] The two ends of the northern tube under the river met in September 1906; at that time it was the longest underwater tunnel in the world.

[3][20] Meanwhile, the John Shields Construction Company had begun in 1905 to bore through Bergen Hill, the lower Hudson Palisades;[21] William Bradley took over in 1906 and the tunnels to the Hackensack Meadows were completed in April 1908.

[24]: 37, 39  The opening of the North River Tunnels and Penn Station made the PRR the only railroad with direct access to New York City from the south.

When the top of the Weehawken Shaft was covered is a mystery; the two tracks may have remained open to the sky until catenary was added circa 1932.

The two portals on the Manhattan side fanned out into 21 tracks just east of 10th Avenue, serving the platforms at Penn Station.

[41] Access to the Region's Core (ARC), launched in 1995 by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), NJ Transit, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was a Major Investment Study that looked at public transportation ideas for the New York metropolitan area.

Engineering studies determined that structural interferences made a new terminal connected to Grand Central or the current Penn Station unfeasible and its final design involved boring under the current rail yard to a new deep cavern terminal station under 34th Street.

[45][46] Amtrak had acknowledged that the region represented a bottleneck in the national system and had originally planned to complete work by 2040.

[47] The ARC project, which did not include direct Amtrak participation,[47][48] was cancelled in October 2010 by New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who cited potential cost overruns.

[49] Amtrak briefly engaged the governor in attempt to revive the ARC Tunnel and use preliminary work done for it, but those negotiations soon broke down.

[64] One report in 2019 estimated that the North River Tubes and the Portal Bridge, two components that the Gateway Program will replace, contributed to 2,000 hours of delays between 2014 and 2018.

[75] In February 2020, Amtrak indicated that it would go forward with the renovation of the North River Tunnels regardless of the Gateway Program's status.

The project will use federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, with the balance provided by the states of New Jersey and New York.

The Hudson Tunnel Project will improve resiliency on the Northeast Corridor, making service along the line more reliable with redundant capacity.

[38] In the best-case scenario, with perfect operating conditions, 9 trains per hour could be provided through the existing North River Tunnels, or a 63% reduction in service.