Making History

The first decades of the George Washington Bridge secured its legacy through celebrations of its namesake, displays of the world’s largest free-flying American flag, praise for its beauty, and continuing efforts to keep it modern and maintained. In 1937, modernist architect and city planner Le Corbusier called the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson “the most beautiful bridge in the world,” praising its cables, steel beams, towers, and pure structure. The bridge sparkled with its original “diamond necklace” of electric lights along the main cables on an April night in 1935. On February 22, 1940, marking the 208th anniversary of George Washington’s birth, traffic was stopped and motorcars led by a horse-drawn carriage paraded across the span. When the bridge opened, its suspended roadway had six lanes of travel, and in 1946 the central two lanes were paved to ease traffic congestion. Also in 1946, a newly sewn American flag measuring 60 by 90 feet and weighing 450 pounds was hung on the bridge for the first time; engineers had built a scale model of the tower to design the mechanism to hoist and lower it. The flag was flown on special occasions and then housed within one tower’s arch. The bridge was repainted in 1954, and the site where the bus station would later be built was visible nearby.

New York, New York · United States