Bridge and Tunnel crowd

June 8, 2005 9:15 AM

I just learned the term "bridge and tunnel crowd" which refers to people from the suburbs who come out on the weekends to the Manhattan

Does anyone know of other cities with similar terms? Can you think of one for people from Virginia or Maryland that come into DC?

posted by hokie409 to Society & Culture (26 answers total)

In San Fran, we call 'em Bridge and Tunnel crowd too. Even though the only tunnel is the one under the bay for BART and half the suburbs are still on the penisula -- no bridge between us and them.
posted by Gucky at 9:27 AM on June 8, 2005

In Philly, the "bridge and tunnel" folks are anyone from Jersey.
But we don't have any tunnels here...hmm...
posted by Jon-o at 9:30 AM on June 8, 2005

In DC, we call them tourists.
posted by go vegan at 9:31 AM on June 8, 2005

Here in London the Essex Girls (and boys) pour into London on the weekend. Replace Essex with Jersey and you can translate the phrase into NYC-speak.
posted by dmt at 9:45 AM on June 8, 2005

You can read more about their exploits here.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:23 AM on June 8, 2005

In LA, people sometimes condescendingly refer to "818". 818 is the area code predominant in the San Fernando Valley.
posted by 4easypayments at 11:59 AM on June 8, 2005

Here in San Francisco, "bridge and tunnel people" refers somewhat derisively to the flood of folks from the suburban Diablo Valley -- places like Danville, Concord, Walnut Creek -- who regularly come to dance and music venues in the city itself. This is because they drive through the Caldecott Tunnel and across the San Francisco Bay Bridge to get here.

Used as a generic term it vaguely encompasses the kids from San Jose and the peninsula, but not specifically.
posted by majick at 12:02 PM on June 8, 2005

In Toronto, we call them 905ers (or it can be used as an adjective: "That's pretty 905"). It's an area code thing - the 905 region completely surrounds 416, so no matter which suburb people come from it's a sure bet that they're 905.
posted by flipper at 12:20 PM on June 8, 2005

Congress.
posted by Happy Monkey at 1:58 PM on June 8, 2005 [1 favorite]

We call them "Americans" in Vancouver. Or, if we see a sudden surge of people on the highway, we say "it's the ferry people, again!"
posted by fionab at 1:59 PM on June 8, 2005

Oh yeah, on Vancouver Island, they refer to the "mainlanders" - the people who swarm the island on weekends and summer holidays.
posted by fionab at 2:01 PM on June 8, 2005

Not exactly what you're looking for, but locals in Northern Michigan call the summer tourists "fudgies" because of all the fudge shops they visit while they're up there.
posted by rkent at 2:40 PM on June 8, 2005

Not completely parallel (the opposite, in fact), but we used to refer to the city folk coming up to our rural mountain town for skiiing, fishing, etc., as "flatlanders."
posted by zanni at 2:47 PM on June 8, 2005

As a Berkeleyite who normally takes BART to San Francisco, I always interpreted it as Gucky's version, not majick's, i.e., that "bridge and tunnel crowd" applied to me, too, not just people on the other side of the East Bay hills.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 3:17 PM on June 8, 2005

When I was in New Hampshire, city folk coming to gaze at the scenery were referred to as "leaf peepers".
posted by cali at 3:19 PM on June 8, 2005

One of the better ones I have heard in Chicago is "Betty Winnetka." I.e., wealthy North Shore type.
posted by Mid at 3:34 PM on June 8, 2005

On Maryland's Eastern Shore (and after a Google search, apparently elsewhere) "chicken-neckers" are poseur watermen who weren't born and raised on the Shore. So named because of their tendency to use poultry parts as bait for crabs, IIRC.
posted by emelenjr at 3:46 PM on June 8, 2005

I have heard Jewish people in NY refer to non-Jewish folks as "out-of-towners."
posted by PY at 4:32 PM on June 8, 2005

In Atlanta they're called OTP, which stands for Outside The Perimeter (highway).
posted by Frank Grimes at 5:56 PM on June 8, 2005

I'd just like to say that here in Williamsburg, we call the Manhattanites who pour out of Bedford Avenue subway on weekends the Bridge and Tunnel crowd. Which is nice.
posted by Decani at 6:42 PM on June 8, 2005

Houston Texas has a loop of freeways around the downtown and hipper neighborhoods. Thus the squares live "outside the loop".

When I moved there I was warned to never go outside the loop.
posted by puppy kuddles at 7:41 PM on June 8, 2005

Re: DC, you mean other than "outside the beltway"?
posted by redfoxtail at 7:49 PM on June 8, 2005

"from St. Paul"
posted by angry modem at 9:56 PM on June 8, 2005

within san francisco i hear the term 'marina people' more than i do 'bridge and tunnel'. and you are sure to find more bridge and tunnel type folks in the marina district than in the mission.

like wise from within chicago my friends there call people in the Lincoln Park area 'Trixies', which i guess refers to more of the young female urban yuppie (vs. the suburban ones). but white and uppity all the same. there's even a parody website (at least i hope it's a parody)
posted by sammich at 12:22 AM on June 9, 2005

Don't want you cosmopolitan townies to feel left out. When Londoners deign to grace their second homes down here in Cornwall with a visit and block up our roads and expensively-cleaned beaches they are referred to as Emmets.
posted by biffa at 3:28 AM on June 9, 2005

I'm with zanni, where I come from we called them "flatlanders".
posted by annathea at 7:11 AM on June 9, 2005