Happy 80th Birthday, George Washington Bridge!

The GWB, designed by architect Cass Gilbert, opened on October 25, 1931, just four-years after its groundbreaking. It had the longest span in the World when it opened.

Bridges tend to be handsome structures, but the GWB was given a shout-out by our frenemy Le Corbusier, who, in his 1937 text Quand les cathédrales étaient blanches, said:

The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson is the most beautiful bridge in the world. Made of cables and steel beams, it gleams in the sky like a reversed arch. It is blessed. It is the only seat of grace in the disordered city. It is painted an aluminum color and, between water and sky, you see nothing but the bent cord supported by two steel towers. When your car moves up the ramp the two towers rise so high that it brings you happiness; their structure is so pure, so resolute, so regular that here, finally, steel architecture seems to laugh.

The GWB commemorates George Washington and the American army’s unsuccessful attempt to prevent the British from Occupying NYC during the Revolutionary War.

Thanks for 80 great years, GWB! We wish you 80 more!