What is Bridge And Tunnel Crowd?
1.
Used in New York City to denote people who enjoy the Manhattan nightlife but reside off the island.
The clubs are hopping tonight, but it's mostly the bridge and tunnel crowd.
2.
Derived from the New York City locution, "Bridge and Tunnel Crowd" (“B&TC”) is often used in Houston to refer to the mass of typically young people who live in the outskirts and trek into town to enjoy the food and nightlife. They are distinguishable because they usually "enjoy" the same expensive restaurants that have bad food and pretentious nightclubs. In paticular, these restaurants used to be hot-spots for the city dwellers, but were quickly found to be below par. See, e.g. Milagro. Additionally, the B&TC generally flock to the same popular nightclubs representing that they are big-shots, when in fact, they have peon jobs out in the sticks. See, e.g. The Red Door; See also Credit Card Millionaires.
Used in a sentence:
-"I don't know why that place is so crowded; I thought the food sucked."
-"It must be the bridge and tunnel crowd."
3.
A term used by pompous out-of-staters who think they are superior to native New Yorkers (namely those from Jersey, the other 4 boroughs and Long Island who travel via bridge or tunnel to get to Manhattan.) Generally used by white-bred, sheltered, self-righteous "yuppies."
Perhaps an antonym would be "Train and Plane people".
Since I moved to NY, I feel inferior and intimidated by native new yorkers, so I refer to them as the, "bridge and tunnel crowd" to make myself feel better.
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