Washington Bridge (New York)
Coordinates: 40 ° 50 ′ 48 ″ N , 73 ° 55 ′ 40 ″ W.
Washington Bridge | ||
---|---|---|
The Manhattan side of the bridge. | ||
use | Road bridge | |
Crossing of | Harlem River | |
place | New York City | |
Entertained by | New York City Department of Transportation | |
construction | Arch bridge | |
overall length | 724 m | |
Longest span | 155 m | |
Clear height | 40 m | |
building-costs | $ 3 million | |
opening | December 1889 | |
planner | Charles Conrad Schneider | |
location | ||
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The Washington Bridge is a six-lane road bridge over the Harlem River in New York . It connects Manhattan and the Bronx . It originally transferred US Highway 1 , which now runs over the Alexander Hamilton Bridge .
The total length, including the ramps, is 724 m. The steel arch bridge spans 155 m over the Harlem River .
Its clear height is 40 m, the clear width 108 m.
The truss arch bridge was designed by William R. Hutton and Edward H. Kendall, based on a design by Charles Conrad Schneider , the cost of which had to be reduced to USD 3 million. It is a steel construction with brick ramps.
Washington Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic on December 1, 1888 . It was planned to open to road traffic on February 22, 1889 ( George Washington's birthday and the centenary of his first presidency). However, the full opening was delayed until December.
After the completion of the George Washington Bridge in 1931, traffic into the Bronx flowed from this bridge over the Washington Bridge. In the 1940s, ramps began to be built to connect the west end of the bridge to the road tunnels that led to the George Washington Bridge. This allowed New Jersey traffic to pass the congested streets of upper Manhattan.
The Alexander Hamilton Bridge was designed in the mid-1950s to create a direct link between the Trans-Manhattan and Cross-Bronx highways proposed by Robert Moses . It was also designed to accommodate the additional traffic created by adding a lower floor to the George Washington Bridge with a six-lane road. The completion of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge in 1963 withdrew much of the traffic from the Washington Bridge.
Web links
- Washington Bridge (New York). In: Structurae
- NYC Roads: Washington Bridge (in English)