Manhattan Borough President Samuel Levy first proposed the Mid-Manhattan Expressway connector in 1936. The plan called for an expressway link crossing midtown Manhattan near 34th Street, then, as now, a heavily traveled crosstown surface street. The original idea was a pair of two-laned tunnels, the Mid-Manhattan Expressway or M.M.E. (sometimes called the Mid-Manhattan Elevated Expressway) connecting the West Side Highway on Hudson River and the Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive on the East River. By 1949, Robert Moses, New York City Parks Commissioner and Arterial Coordinator, proposed a six-lane elevated expressway along 30th Street. The expressway was to have two exits, to connect to the West Side Highway and the Lincoln Tunnel on the west side of Manhattan, and also to the Queens–Midtown Tunnel and FDR Drive on the east side of the island. It would be constructed within a -wide right-of-way immediately south of 30th Street. The viaduct would require substantial demolition of high-rise buildings within Midtown Manhattan. To cover the costs of construction, Moses suggested charging tolls on the new roadway, which was estimated to cost $26 million to construct plus another $23 million for the land needed for the project.