New Jersey Tower |
New York Tower |
In his 1947 book When the Cathedrals Were White Le Corbusier wrote
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 this disordered city.
I'm assuming he had more visibility than I did yesterday afternoon. Once it gets warmer I'm sure I'll ride across on my bike and will take more pictures then.
The steel towers were originally to be enclosed. Luckily the Great Depression interrupted and the steel towers were left exposed. The Port Authority has historic pictures of the bridge.
The sheathing on the New Jersey tower is part of the $54 million lead paint removal and repainting project on the bridge. The New Jersey side should be done later this year and the New York tower is scheduled to be done next year.
Lovely photographs. And a lovely post.
Posted by: karrie | 02 April 2004 at 12:41 PM
interestingly enough, I suggested to regular reader to skip this entry because I thought it was one my lesser efforts!
Posted by: joe | 02 April 2004 at 03:16 PM
Did you know they were going to clad the GWB in limestone but ran out of bucks? If you ask me, it looks just great without the cladding.
Posted by: Bridge Nut | 04 April 2004 at 09:58 PM
Limestone! I once saw some old sketches of the completed bridge was anticipated to look like, so knew they were to be clad in something, but I didn't know what material. I agree that it looks great as is.
Posted by: joe | 05 April 2004 at 03:15 PM