Port authoritarians: the shadowy bureaucracy behind Chris Christie's Bridgegate scandal is a signature failure of Progressivism.

• Author: Epstein, Jim

"I FEEL VIOLATED," New Jersey resident Leon Keylin told USA Today after hearing the dirty details behind the Bridgegate traffic jam that choked the city of Fort Lee last September. The politically motivated gridlock that paralyzed Keylin's hometown attracted the interest and ire of the nation, in no small part thanks to the presidential ambitions of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

But while Christie's office has taken most of the heat for screwing over drivers on and around the George Washington Bridge, another directly responsible party has so far dodged most of its share of the well-deserved blame. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the government agency that ordered up the punitive gridlock, is a bastion of power, patronage, and bureaucracy that violates commuters and taxpayers on both sides of the bridge every day of every year.

The basic details of the scandal are by now well known: Last August, a top aide to Gov. Christie emailed David Wildstein, a Christie appointee at the Port Authority: "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee." Wildstein then ordered the closing of two entrance lanes to the George Washington Bridge, ensnaring the town in a four-day traffic nightmare. The ostensible goal was to punish Fort Lee's mayor for declining to endorse Christie in the last election, though competing theories of retribution have surfaced. The U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, and the New Jersey state legislature are all investigating the episode, which has put a damper on Christie's expected bid for the White House.

It would be easy to dismiss this as a case of a few bad apples abusing

their power. But it's actually just the latest example of how an organization that was supposed to rise above politics became a tool for politicians to act out their worst impulses. The Port Authority--and the countless public authorities it inspired nationwide--demonstrate the lasting folly of the Progressive Era ethos that good public policy is all about entrusting smart people to run things.

The Technocratic Temptation

Founded in 1921, the Port Authority controls much of the transportation infrastructure around New York City and North Jersey. The agency systematically squanders its wealth and mismanages its assets; it charges high tolls and puts off necessary maintenance work; and it serves as a permanent cesspool of dirty politics. An organization designed to be the antithesis of old-school Tammany Hall machine politics has devolved into a patronage mill for Christie's cronies.

Ironically, the Port Authority was originally tasked with breaking through the logjams that made building big projects so difficult. Before the agency existed, cities generally financed bridges, tunnels, and roads with tax revenues, which often required direct approval from voters--a major obstacle to...