Edition: U.S. / Global

Women and Children First?; For More Than Half a Century, Two Brothers Have Begged to Differ

Published: February 1, 1995

First things first: Michael Katen remembers how cold it was when he bivouacked outside the Lincoln Tunnel for four days and four numbing winter nights. The macaroni and coffee he had brought along froze. Someone shook his hand and said it felt like an icicle.

It was 1945, and Mr. Katen's goal was to be the first motorist to pay a toll when the new north tube of the tunnel opened. After all, he and his brother say that separately or together, they were first at hundreds of things: Mr. First and Mr. Second.

The Bronx-born brothers' exploits have been widely documented over the years in newspaper and magazine articles now yellowed with age. They stake their claims on such headline-catching events as being the first to fly into Idlewild Airport (July 31, 1948).

Mr. Katen's brother, Omero C. Catan, now 80, was the first to buy a token on the Eighth Avenue subway (Sept. 10, 1932), the first to put a coin in a New York City parking meter (Sept. 19, 1951), the first to skate across the rink at Rockefeller Center (Christmas Day, 1936) and the first to drive over the Tappan Zee Bridge (Dec. 15, 1955). Mr. Catan's last first was the opening of Interstate 595 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where the retired sports-concession executive now lives.

And Mr. Katen? An 82-year-old retired mechanic who lives in Margate, Fla., he was the first passenger on the Metrorail in Miami (May 20, 1984).

Today, Mr. Katen (his brother changed the spelling of his name when he was a teen-ager, Mr. Katen said) plans to mark the 50th anniversary of his Lincoln Tunnel opening by driving right through -- no camping out this time, and no complaints, though the toll is now $4, up from 50 cents 50 years ago.

"Compared to the bridges, that's nothing," he said. "The Triborough Bridge? The Whitestone Bridge? Those are the ones that make me mad. You pay, and then you get jammed up in the middle and can't go anywhere."

(For the record, Mr. Catan claims to be the first to cross both of those spans, as well as the George Washington Bridge, the Henry Hudson Bridge -- both levels -- and the Delaware Memorial Bridge, among others.)

Along the way, Mr. Catan and Mr. Katen met a lot of governors and Presidents -- "dignity people," Mr. Katen calls them, so many that he cannot remember their names. But he is certain of this: elected officials today do not measure up.

"They only come around and shake your hand if they're running for office," he said. "They don't want to know you after that. I stayed at that governor's nice house in Maryland for a week when they were opening the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. He came over when we were out by the bridge and said, 'You comfortable?' I said, 'Forgot my rifle.' He said, 'Your rifle? What for?' I said, 'To shoot the mosquitoes.'

"He sent three trucks over to spray for them, and he made sure nobody got in front of us."

Which is more than Mr. Catan can say for the opening of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, where he almost lost first place to -- can you believe it? -- a reporter. Mr. Catan had rented a place to park near the tunnel. "We had two newspaper guys who complained so much the chief of police, at the last minute, sent somebody to get me out" of the first-place position, Mr. Catan said. But with some, uh, first-rate driving, he still managed to get through the tunnel first.

Mr. Catan said he first thought about becoming Mr. First when he met a man who had walked across the Brooklyn Bridge the day it opened, in 1883. "I sensed this was a way to get in on the growth of the country, seeing these historic events," Mr. Catan said. "We had a lot of bridges, expressways, steamships. New stuff every time."

Mr. Catan said he never had any desire to beat Neil Armstrong to the moon. "No, thank you," he said. "I don't have that kind of nerve." But flying to Paris ahead of Charles Lindbergh? "That would have been great," Mr. Catan said. "That's unique."

Being first so many times took careful planning and help from officials, contacted in advance, who arranged for a close-up parking space here or a motorcycle escort there. But after leading the way on everything from the Massachusetts Turnpike (May 16, 1957) to the Major Deegan Expressway (Nov. 5, 1955) to the Florida Turnpike (Jan. 26, 1957), Mr. Catan can no longer remember the first of what he reckons to be his 573 firsts.

"Only 573?" his brother said. "I thought he had more."

So much for keeping score. The worst first, Mr. Katen said, was on opening day at Idlewild Airport, now John F. Kennedy. The brothers arranged to rent a twin-engine plane to fly them in from Teterboro, N.J. The pilot was waiting for clearance to land when, to the delight of the audience at the ribbon-cutting on the ground, a squadron of B-29's roared by.

"We were shaking like a leaf," Mr. Katen said. "We said, 'We can't stay up here.' So we landed. We pulled alongside of Harry S. Truman's plane. The tower was pretty mad. But we succeeded: we paid the first toll for landing. I forget how much it was, but the plane was $50."

The Lincoln Tunnel opened on Dec. 22, 1937, and as usual, Mr. Catan was there ahead of everybody. (Like his brother eight years later, he nearly froze waiting for the big moment.) But when the north tube was completed in 1945, Mr. Catan was an injured soldier in an Army hospital in England. He wrote to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to ask if Mr. Katen could stand in for him. The answer was yes, and Mr. Katen parked his Pontiac and waited. Howard Hughes, Mr. Katen's billionaire boss at Trans World Airlines, where Mr. Katen was working at the time, brought him a hot plate, Mr. Katen said. Still, he shivered.

"I wasn't dressed for winter," Mr. Katen said. "I didn't think it was going to be that cold." To save fuel, he kept the engine turned off. "I was afraid the car wouldn't start."

But it did. The Port Authority says that 738,788,000 vehicles have followed, and when Mr. Katen drove through yesterday on a trial run for today's anniversary, it showed. "Looks a little bit dirtier than when I went through," he said.

Eventually, he pulled up to toll booth No. 18 and paid the $4. It was a routine transaction that began with a "Hi, how are you?" and ended with a "Have a nice day." After she had taken the money, the toll collector, Spring Lee, did the math: the first time he went through was 13 years before she was born.

Photos: In 1945, Michael Katen became the first motorist to cross the Hudson through the north tube of the Lincoln Tunnel and was given a medallion, below, for that pioneering exploit. On a trial run for an anniversary crossing planned for today, the toll collector was Spring Lee, left; in 1945, it was Helen Deckner, above. (Andrea Mohin/The New York Times) (pg. B1); In 1945, Omero C. Catan couldn't be first. So he sent his brother. (1945) (pg. B2)