Henry Hudson Bridge Toll for TLC Drivers

In short: The Henry Hudson Bridge, between upper Manhattan and the Bronx, costs a car $3.42 with a New York E-ZPass, $5.42 Mid-Tier and $8.87 by mail. Paying by mail costs 159% more, the biggest gap of any NYC crossing. On a TLC trip the passenger pays the actual E-ZPass amount. On a taxi trip to Westchester, the passenger pays the tolls both ways and twice the meter outside the city.

Henry Hudson rates (Class 1 car)

At the six big MTA crossings the mail price is 61% above E-ZPass; here it is 159% (MTA vehicle types; comparison on NYC toll rates compared). Two consequences for TLC drivers:

• Use an NYCSC tag. The MTA says: "Non-NYCSC customers pay Tolls by Mail rates." Taxis and FHVs must carry a New York MTA Bridges & Tunnels E-ZPass anyway (§58-26(e)(1), §59A-23(a)(1)).
• Never pass the mail price to a passenger. The passenger pays only "the actual amount (often a discounted toll) charged to the EZ-Pass" (§58-26(e)(3)). Charging $8.87 for a $3.42 crossing is an overcharge under §80-17 (§58-26(f)(3)).

Got a bill even though you have E-ZPass? Common causes and fixes: why did I get a toll bill with E-ZPass?

Who pays on a trip inside the city

For trips within New York City the passenger pays "all tolls incurred during the trip" (§58-26(f)(1), §59A-23(b)(1)). The direction exceptions apply only to the Verrazzano, Cross Bay and Marine Parkway bridges, not the Henry Hudson. So a taxi or FHV passenger going from upper Manhattan to the Bronx over the bridge pays the $3.42 crossing. Your empty trip back is yours. On Uber and Lyft, the company must pass back every toll you paid during a dispatched trip (§59D-17(c)).

Taxi trips to Westchester

The Henry Hudson is one route north toward Westchester County. For a yellow taxi or a green cab, TLC rules set a special fare for Westchester and Nassau (§58-26(c)(2)):

Example with simple numbers

Say the meter shows $20.00 when you announce the city line, and the part of the trip outside the city adds $10.00 on the meter. You went over the Henry Hudson with an NYCSC tag and will come back the same way. The passenger owes:

The meter amounts here are made up to show the method; the toll and tax amounts are real. If you came back a different way, for example on a Thruway road, the passenger owes the tolls you actually pay on the way back, at the E-ZPass amount.

TLC's fare page says the same in plain words: passengers pay "the tolls to and from a destination" for Westchester and Nassau trips (TLC taxi fare). For FHVs, the passenger pays "all necessary tolls to and from the destination" on any trip beyond the city (§59A-23(b)(2)). Other routes north use the Thruway; see the Mario Cuomo Bridge and tolls on trips outside NYC.

Traffic and E-ZPass use

In 2025 the bridge had 25,313,379 crossings: 14,418,072 southbound to Manhattan and 10,895,307 northbound to the Bronx. 85.3% were paid by E-ZPass, down from 88.7% in 2019, so about one crossing in seven was recorded as Tolls by Mail (our sums of ebfx-2m7v, fetched October 12, 2026). The data counts all traffic, whether or not the toll was later paid. In 2025 more crossings were recorded southbound than northbound; the dataset does not explain why, so we don't guess. For a TLC driver the practical point is the price gap: an unread tag costs $2.00 more per crossing here (Mid-Tier), and a plate that is not on an NYCSC account costs $5.45 more (Tolls by Mail).

Other crossings: Verrazzano-Narrows, Throgs Neck, George Washington Bridge, Goethals, Bayonne. Borough guides: Manhattan, the Bronx. More: tolls hub.