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Historical Photos
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The George Washington Bridge stands high
above the Hudson River, its eastern end resting on the shores
of Manhattan, its western end embedded in the wooded bluffs
of New Jersey's Palisades. Twice as long as the longest suspension
bridge ever built, it was the marvel of its time and, to some,
it will always be the noblest of all bridges. Spanning the
river to link New York City and New Jersey had challenged
planners for over 100 years before Othmar Ammann, the brilliant,
Swiss-born architect and engineer, proposed a bridge design
in 1923 that ultimately was chosen from all others. The Port
Authority, with Ammann as its new chief engineer, began construction
in October of 1927. Ammann's design, bold and foresighted,
was an engineering tour de force, with an extraordinary 3,500-foot
center span suspended between two 570' steel towers. It would
have the capacity and strength to add a railroad or a second
roadway with an additional six lanes.
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Ground breaking ceremonies took place in Fort Lee,
New Jersey -September 21, 1927.
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The view of the Palisades from Riverside Drive in
1928, would be dramatically altered in just three
years.
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Wire ropes, nearly a mile in length, are towed across
the Hudson River. They will be raised to the top of
each tower and support the catwalk scaffolds for cable
construction. The flooring and bracing complete the
scaffolds, making a continuous catwalk from shore
to shore. The four main cables are composed of parallel
wires carried back and forth across the river, each
containing 61 strands of 434 individual wires. Each
strand wraps around a strand shoe in the anchorage.
Each shoe connects to an eyebar which penetrates into
the anchorage and holds the strand in place.
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Once the towers were in place, the
four main cables, each a yard in diameter, were ready
to sustain the roadway. With steel suspenders hanging
from the main cables, the bridgemen at last built the
road itself, foot by foot, out from the shores.
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The New York anchorage consists of 110,000 cubic
yards of concrete. The massive concrete block, weighing
260,000 tons, anchors the main cables on the New York
end. From the top of the New York Tower, the view
is of Washington Heights. 200,000 cubic yards of solid
rock had to be excavated for the New Jersey anchorage
of the bridge.
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Its two great towers - 43,000 tons of steel rising
over the New York and New Jersey banks of the Hudson
River, would top out at 600 feet, capable of bearing
all the traffic its sweeping system of approaches
could bring. These tower piers, nearly completed,
will serve as the foundations for the two legs of
the 600 ft. tall tower.
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The George Washington Bridge was first opened to
traffic in 1931. During the first full year of operation
in 1932 more than 5.5 million vehicles used the original
six-lane roadway. As traffic demand increased, additional
construction became necessary. The two center lanes
of the bridge which had been left unpaved in the original
construction were opened to traffic in 1946 increasing
capacity of the bridge by one-third. The six lanes
of the lower roadway were built into the bridge by
1962.
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