The Mount Hope Bridge was built as a private toll bridge by the Mount Hope Bridge Co. after state proposals for a public bridge were defeated. In 1927, Dr. David B Steinman, a noted New York bridge engineer, produced the design for a graceful suspension bridge, and his firm, Robinson and Steinman, supervised its construction. The McClintic-Marshall Construction Company served as general contractor, and the combined workforce totaled nearly 500 men. Steinman’s design included several innovations that allowed the bridge to be built in just 22 months with significant cost savings. With a main span of 1,200 feet and an overall length of 6,130 feet, the bridge was the eighth longest in New England until the Newport Pell Bridge was completed in 1969. Construction began with the upper arches and the viaduct spans at either end, followed by the main piers in the channel and the towers atop them, which reached 325 feet above the water. Huge masonry anchorages weighing 8,000 and 27,000 tons were then built on either shore to secure the two main cables, which were fabricated by spinning thousands of miles of steel wire back and forth from shore to shore over the tops of the towers. Each cable is eleven inches in diameter, consists of 2,450 wire strands, and weighs 350 tons. After the cables were spun and wrapped, the steel frame of the central span was lifted into place and suspended from the cables by vertical hangers. The concrete roadway was then poured, and on October 24, 1929, the Mount Hope Bridge opened to traffic.