Conceived in the 1860s, the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge created the only Hudson River crossing between New York City and Albany. Political and financial difficulties delayed the project for several years, but in 1886 the Manhattan Bridge Company was organized to fund it and the Union Bridge Company was hired to build it. The great iron and steel structure was completed in less than three years at a cost of over $3.5 million, and it was engineered to withstand gale force winds and the constant motion of the tidal river.