A Real Snoozer: GW Bridge Guards Caught Dozing Off

Water bored: And this apparently isn't the first time

By VICTORIA CAVALIERE and PEI-SZE CHENG

Updated 3:20 PM EST, Tue, Sep 1, 2009

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Cliffview Pilot

Consider this your wake up call.

Guards along the George Washington Bridge, one of the world's busiest crossings and a prime terror target , have apparently been dozing off on the job -- and their sleeping habits were caught by a local website. Two guards were fired following the photos' publication.

According to Cliffviewpilot.com, a cyclist heading over the bridge around 10:15 a.m. today snapped photos of one guard inside his booth in an apparent state of REM.

"I didn't even zoom in," Joey Lepore said. "I walked right up to the window."

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Lepore said this wasn't the first time he's seen guards apparently asleep on the job. At the height of the morning rush on Aug. 5, another guard was seen nodded out in the west guard booth on the New Jersey side, the website reported. "That was the third time I'd seen him," Lepore said.

"The two guards have been fired by the security contractor, FJC Security," a Port Authority spokesperson said this afternoon.

"The Port Authority takes the safety of its passengers and facilities very serious and has spent more than $4 billion dollars on security since 9/11. The Port Authority welcomes the public's vigilance on matters of safety and security and we encourage our customers to contact us if they encounter anything out of the ordinary."

The two-level GW span, which runs from Fort Lee N.J. to Washington Heights, is the fourth largest suspension bridge in the United States.

As of 2007, the George Washington Bridge had the greatest capacity of any bridge in the world with more than 107,000,000 vehicles crossing its fourteen lanes in 2005, national transportation authorities said.

Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C., both local and federal security officials named the GW Bridge as one of the most critical structures for commerce and travel on the East Coast.