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Oct 25, 2006 2:30 pm US/Eastern
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GWB At 75: Building The Bridge
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
It was hailed as one of greatest engineering marvels of its time when it opened 75 years ago. Today, the George Washington Bridge remains one of the busiest bridges in the world.
The dream to cross the Hudson was first proposed in Midtown at 57th Street. But the bridge was too expensive, in part, because it crossed the river at its widest point.
Enter a young Swiss engineer who had a solution.
"He arrived in New York in 1904, and his first impression was the one of the things he wrote about were the tall buildings in New York. He said, 'Imagine some of the buildings were 10 stories,'" said Margot Amman, daughter of the designer of the bridge.
Amman was 9 years old when the bridge opened. She said that her father, Othmar Ammann, faced many obstacles to designing what would become the world's largest suspension bridge -- twice the length of any other span at the time.
"Even in his own profession, the belief was the bridge wouldn't work," she said. "It is quite a story when you think of it."
Othmar Ammann finally won the backing of the governors in New Jersey and New York, as well as the Port Authority.
He actually became the chief engineer for the Port Authority and went on to design many of the city's most famous bridges.
"Working at the George Washington Bridge was probably the best job I ever had," said Ernesto Butcher, the current COO of the Port Authority.
Butcher once served as the general manager of the bridge. He said he's still struck by its beauty.
"Basically it's simple in its conception. There are four main cables that go over two towers. The towers are about 600 feet in height," Butcher said.
You could call it a massive erector set: 43,000 tons of steel beams were lifted into place by floating cranes. And forget about riveting the bolts -- much of the work was done by hand.
The next task was to create a key component in suspension bridges: the supporting cables.
"Each cable is about 3-feet in diameter, and within the cables are thin strings of wire that actually make up the cable themselves," Butcher said.
Imagine weaving the cables with more than 100,000 miles of ultra thin wire, most of which remain intact today.
After the cables were anchored, scaffolding was erected, and the roadway began to take shape.
In just over four years, the bridge was complete -- eight months ahead of schedule -- and just in time for the first traffic jam.
"When the bridge first opened, October 25, 1931, that first year, 5.5 million vehicles used the bridge. Last year 110 million vehicles used the bridge," said Butcher.
Tolls have been around since the beginning. But back in 1931, they cost just 50 cents for cars; bicycles were 25 cents.
The bridge originally cost $59 million, and according to some accounts, a dozen lives. Since then, over a billion dollars have been spent to upgrade and maintain it.
In 1959, the lower level was added, making it the only 14-lane bridge in the world.
Later this week: How did the GWB get its name?
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)