Only a bare-bones crew remains at this Manhattan construction site, where work on the nation's largest infrastructure project has ground to a halt
The Trump administration stopped allocating funding for the $16 billion project, a new tunnel for a railway line, back in October
We were really excited about this job and getting it going and being a part of this
We laid off all of our guys a couple weeks, a couple days ago. Guys got bills and families at home and they're concerned if they're coming back here or if they got to start looking for other work
As of a week ago, 1,000 construction workers found themselves without a job
An extended pause would put another 11,000 at risk. As well as the 95,000 jobs and nearly 20 billion in related economic activity anticipated by the Gateway Development Commission overseeing the construction
On Thursday, a judge ordered the Trump administration to pay the $200 million it owes
But the White House is appealing the decision. Currently, one train tunnel goes under the Hudson River from New Jersey, which you can see in the distance there
And it ends up here in Manhattan, right next to where the new tunnel is supposed to be built
The problem with the old tunnel, it is badly damaged and prone to delays
A major storm damaged the existing tunnel in 2012. The president has questioned the contracting process for the new one, which connects two states controlled by Democrats and was approved by President Joe Biden
Congress has approved this money. It belongs to the American people. It's not pocket money for Trump
Trump has denied reports that he offered to restore the funding if New York's main train station was named after him
A billion dollars has already been spent on the project, and the longer work is delayed, the longer it'll take, and the more expensive it will become to restart it
Kristen Salumi, Al Jazeera, New York