A bridge collapse in Minneapolis and a controversial proposal to keep cars out of Manhattan helped topple metro Denver's plea for up to $234.5 million in federal traffic relief funds.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced on Tuesday that New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis and Miami would share in $848 million in total grants for innovative projects to combat urban traffic congestion.

The program chose not to commit all $1.1 billion that had been set aside.

Denver's application to extend the car pool and bus lane system up U.S. 36 from Interstate 25 to Table Mesa Drive in Boulder and allow solo drivers to use them for a toll was "first- rate," said Peters' spokeswoman, Sarah Echols.

But the winners' plans for their own projects - including a proposal from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to charge a toll to drivers entering Manhattan - showed more ability to reduce congestion, Echols said.

Submitted in May by the U.S. 36 Mayors and Commissioners Coalition and the Colorado Department of Transportation, the plan involved minimal reconstruction and built on an existing framework of the I-25 Express lanes, which already allow solo toll-paying drivers to mix with buses and car pools.

Local officials put a smiley face on the decision.

"I believe that our coalition of local, state and federal leaders will succeed in the end and find the necessary funding to stop the traffic congestion on U.S. 36," said U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo.

In Minneapolis, where earlier this month an Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed, Mayor Raymond T. Rybak included approval of his city's Urban Partnership application as part of a package of "preliminary requests" for expedited federal aid he delivered to President Bush last week.

Minneapolis' application included a bus system along I-35W, but not over the area where the bridge collapsed.

New York's plan won $354.5 million, the most of the five cities, for a program the state legislature has so far rejected, a so-called cordon pricing system for entering Manhattan south of 86th Street from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.