A man was shot while traveling westbound on the upper level of the George Washington Bridge Tuesday night, closer to the New Jersey side of the span, and was rushed to Englewood Hospital for treatment. The shooting set off a cascade of lane closures that choked traffic on one of the busiest crossings in the country during the evening commute.
According to sources who spoke with ABC7 New York, the male victim was shot while heading west on the bridge and was taken to the hospital shortly afterward. The outlet reported that no further details about the circumstances of the shooting, the shooter, or a possible motive had been released as of its initial report. Englewood Hospital, where the victim was brought, sits roughly 3 to 5 miles north of the bridge in Bergen County and serves as the primary acute care facility for the New Jersey side of the span, according to Scott Selleck Real Estate.
Upper Level Shut Down, Commuters Pushed to Lower Deck
Traffic alerts tracked by BNO News show police activity initially blocked the left upper-level New York-bound lane at 7:04 p.m. Tuesday before authorities closed all New York-bound upper lanes entirely by 7:14 p.m., diverting commuters onto the lower level. That kind of closure is no small inconvenience on a bridge of this scale — the station's report underscores just how quickly the lanes filled once police moved in.
The George Washington Bridge is the world's busiest vehicular crossing, carrying more than 101 million vehicles in 2025 across its 14 total lanes, split between eight on the upper level and six below, per the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Port Authority regulations also require all commercial trucks and any vehicle taller than 13 feet 6 inches to use the upper level exclusively, since the lower deck is capped at 13.5 feet of clearance and bans hazardous materials. That rule meant the closure fell hardest on freight traffic with nowhere else to go.
Jurisdiction and Response Fall to Port Authority Police
The 2,100-member Port Authority Police Department holds primary law enforcement and emergency response authority over the bridge, which connects Fort Lee, New Jersey, with Washington Heights in Manhattan, according to the Cohan Law Firm. Because the shooting happened closer to the New Jersey side, any eventual criminal case would likely move through Bergen County municipal courts or Bergen County Superior Court in Hackensack for indictable felonies, per the Tormey Law Firm's description of how New Jersey handles bridge-related offenses.
The upper level also feeds directly into the George Washington Bridge Bus Station in Washington Heights, which serves multiple NJ Transit routes carrying thousands of daily commuters between Bergen County and Manhattan, according to GeorgeWashingtonBridgeToll.com. A shutdown of that scale ripples well beyond the bridge deck itself, backing up connecting bus routes and local streets on both sides of the Hudson.
A Rare Burst of Violence on a Newly Restored Span
The shooting comes just weeks after the Port Authority announced the reopening of the renovated South Walk on the bridge, capping an eight-year, $2 billion “Restoring the George” rehabilitation program that replaced all 592 steel suspender ropes on the 1931 structure. Hoodline previously covered that $2B overhaul as the agency worked to keep the aging span structurally sound ahead of its 100th anniversary.
Violence at or near the crossing remains rare but not unheard of. In July 2025, an off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was shot in the face and arm during an attempted moped robbery in Fort Washington Park, directly beneath the Manhattan side of the bridge, according to Lexipol Police1. Federal and city authorities arrested two suspects shortly after that incident.
No arrests or suspect information had been released in connection with Tuesday's shooting, and the exact circumstances — whether tied to a dispute between drivers, a targeted act, or an attempted robbery — remained unclear. ABC7 New York indicated it had no additional details to share beyond the initial reports from its sources as the investigation continued.
